Charles, Oliver and Mabel are heading across the ocean! Season six of Only Murders in the Building has a premiere date
Cosy mysteries are enjoying a golden age. From The Thursday Murder Club to new British series, murder on screen is done gently, with a cup of tea and a view of a country house. After five seasons, however, the uncrowned queen of the genre remains the comedy crime series Only Murders in the Building. Disney+ has confirmed that season 6 will launch on Tuesday 8 December and new episodes will arrive every Tuesday. It also confirmed that the podcasting trio Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez will leave New York's Arconia for the first time to get to the bottom of a crime across the ocean, and the new season has earned the nickname Only Murders in London among its creators.
The next victim is Cinda Canning
The season five finale set up a real twist. Charles, Oliver and Mabel put on Cinda Canning's new podcast, The Girl With the Curls, which revolves around a young woman accused of murdering a member of the royal family in England. Moments later, a red-haired woman fell to the ground in front of the Arconia, and when the trio took a closer look, they were staring into the face of Cinda herself.
And that is exactly where season six picks up. After another successful capture of a culprit, the heroes face their toughest case yet. The next victim quite literally lands on their doorstep and calls them to London to find her killer. The New York amateurs have to find their bearings in the homeland of the cosy mystery, among a brand-new collection of suspects and typically English eccentrics. The question is whether they can follow in the footsteps of the woman whose podcast once led them to investigating, without ending up like her. Remember that it was an obsession with Cinda's true crime podcast that brought the three neighbours together in the very first season.
“The U.K. is the home of Agatha Christie. This is where Cinda Canning might have met her maker in some way,” says series co-creator John Hoffman in an interview with Vulture.
A British dream line-up and three Doctors at once
The guest list should knock fans flat. The trip to Britain brings the best of British and Irish acting among the victims and suspects: Olivia Colman, Nicola Coughlan, Martin Freeman, Sharon Horgan, Jim Broadbent, Jennifer Saunders, Geri Halliwell, Sean Teale, Simone Ashley, Rhea Norwood, Richard Ayoade, Jamie Demetriou, Derek Jacobi, Kathryn Hunter and Lesley Nicol. And on top of that, three actors who have played the Doctor in Doctor Who: Peter Capaldi, David Tennant and Jodie Whittaker. All twenty-two announced guests will play proper characters; none of them will appear as themselves. Regulars Meryl Streep and Tina Fey are also returning.
Hoffman has already revealed a few details. Olivia Colman will play a writer, Jennifer Saunders a fashion designer inspired by the late Vivienne Westwood, and Charles will discover that a British remake of his famous series Brazzos is being made. He is thus in for a face-to-face meeting with his British counterpart. The trio is not saying goodbye to the Arconia for good, though; they are reportedly going to return to New York during the season.
“There's no getting around a certain understanding that the show needs to be freshened up. I mean, how many murders can be in one building?” Hoffman explains the change of setting to The Hollywood Reporter.
Queen Camilla was almost in the cast
One more extraordinary name could have appeared on the guest list. According to Hoffman, a cameo for Queen Camilla was in play. The creator says he was taken aback himself when the casting team told him that such a thing was even possible. In the end it fell through, partly because of strict British union rules that limit a shooting day to ten hours, and because of the logistics that the Queen's participation would have brought to an already packed schedule.
In winter for the first time
A December premiere is a first for the series. The previous five seasons launched in summer or at the turn of summer and autumn, but according to Hoffman the sixth season will get a Christmas atmosphere. London fog, festive decorations and a murder to go with them; fans of British mysteries could hardly wish for a better combination. The trailer should arrive roughly four weeks before the premiere.
What happened in season five
Season five revolved around the death of the beloved doorman Lester, behind which lay a secret plan to turn the Arconia into New York's first casino. The investigation drew in a trio of billionaires, Bash Steed (Christoph Waltz), Camila White (Renée Zellweger) and Jay Pflug (Logan Lerman), the Caccimelio mafia family played by Bobby Cannavale and Téa Leoni, and finally the mayor himself.
About the series
The series was created by Steve Martin and John Hoffman and premiered in 2021. It follows three neighbours from the luxury Arconia building on the Upper West Side: Charles-Haden Savage, a former star of the 90s crime series Brazzos, the unsuccessful Broadway director Oliver Putnam and the young artist Mabel Mora. They are united by a love of true crime podcasts, and when a murder takes place in their building, they decide to investigate it and make their own podcast about it. The series has received positive reviews from critics, and the first season alone earned 17 Emmy nominations.
WHERE TO WATCH: streaming on Disney+, seasons 1 to 5; season 6 from 8 December 2026
Sources: Empire Online, Deadline, Vulture, TVLine, The Hollywood Reporter, A.V. Club, Variety, PinkNews