Nathan Fielder is a creative who seems to pride himself on being equal parts disarming and transfixing. Though he got his start as the lead on a Comedy Central series in the early 2010s, he quickly set himself apart from any number of the other young comedians that were attempting to seize such opportunities at the time. The show, Nathan for You, was a bizarre blend of genuine insight and incisive satire, and the success of the series rested primarily on the shoulders of the writer, director, and star, Fielder himself.
He parlayed the success of that series into an HBO series in the early 2020s, The Rehearsal. Part documentary, part reality series, and wholly uncharacterizable, The Rehearsal saw Fielder doubling down on all of his most surreal and existential tendencies. The series ran for two seasons and netted Fielder several awards, including Emmys and a Peabody along the way.
Now, Fielder is back in the spotlight thanks to the surprise release of the universally hailed new Elisabeth Holmes-centric documentary film, You Can See Everything. Which begs the question: is Fielder making a third season of The Rehearsal?
The answer to that question, in true-to-form Nathan Fielder fashion, is a bit more complicated than you might expect.
HBO basically confirmed The Rehearsal season 3
For more than a decade now, secrecy has been an essential ingredient in Fielder’s larger creative workflow. Ever since he gained any degree of fame or notoriety, he has clearly learned that in order to truly capture the cinema vérité quality that he is looking for in his work, he has to conduct it under a veil of discretion and obfuscation.
For example, the second season of The Rehearsal focused almost exclusively on airplane safety (and eventually Fielder himself obtaining a real-life pilot’s license during the “Miracle Over the Mojave”) at a time when that entire industry was being thrown into tumultuous uncertainty. Fielder filmed the entire season in secrecy and didn’t reveal any of his plans until mere weeks before the episodes began to air.
Similarly, Fielder and co-director Lance Oppenheim began shooting You Can See Everything back in 2022, before Holmes ever even went to jail, and had kept the project under wraps for years in the name of preserving the integrity of the work itself. It wasn’t until just a few short weeks ago that the film was announced and had its debut screening at the Telluride Film Festival simultaneously that the rest of the world even clued into the project’s existence.
In an interview with Deadline back in September, HBO's Casey Bloys confirmed that Fielder was working on something for The Rehearsal season 3, but he didn't say season 3 specifically. Here's what Bloys said:
"[HBO Head of Comedy] Amy Gravitt and Nathan have a very, very good working relationship. He’s got an idea that he’s working on for The Rehearsal. And yes, I was lucky enough to see the Elizabeth Holmes documentary, and I recommend that everybody go see it because it is kind of insane, but really wild and interesting."
All of this to say, officially speaking, The Rehearsal season 3 has not been announced. Is Nathan Fielder currently in the midst of making a third season of The Rehearsal? Almost certainly.
Prior to both the reveal of the second season of The Rehearsal and You Can See Everything, vague and non-descript rumors circulated in certain corners of the internet hinting that the filmmaker was up to something. Now, similar rumors are circulating with regard to a currently filming third season of The Rehearsal.
But much like any number of other Fielder projects in recent years, chances are good that audiences will know little to nothing about The Rehearsal season 3 until they are literally watching.
In an age of so much oversaturation of media and these prolonged, exhausting marketing campaigns, there’s something so refreshing about this approach. There’s nothing quite like sitting down and just getting blindsided by whatever new insanity Fielder and his collaborators have cooked up, and I have no doubt that The Rehearsal season 3 will deliver those goods soon enough.
Stay tuned for more news about The Rehearsal season 3!
Add us as a preferred source on Google