Since 2019, the good (and bad) people of Virgin River have brought us lots of small town romance, familial strife, emotional reveals and more dramatic twists than Mel Monroe could shake a stethoscope at. As we all hope, it does sound like the upcoming Virgin River Season 6 will be no different when it returns for those with a Netflix subscription, and we already know quite a bit about what’s coming up. Let’s dig into what we know about the hit drama that you can watch on one of the best streaming services , and how it will delve into all the questions left after the surprises of Season 5 Part 2 !
Warning: Spoilers for Virgin River Season 5 ahead. Proceed with caution if you haven’t caught up yet!
What Is The Virgin River Season 6 Release Date?
As of late September 2024, there is no exact release date set for Virgin River Season 6 just yet, but Netflix revealed in early February 2024 that it won’t return until some point next year, on the 2025 TV schedule. As mentioned previously, the series has aired yearly for the past half-decade, so it’s unfortunate that we won’t see new episodes hit the streamer in 2024, but at least we know they’re hard at work on the show and will be back, hopefully before too much longer.
We’re also not sure right now whether or not the season will release all at once, as Seasons 1-4 did, or be split into two parts, as was the case with Season 5.
The Virgin River Season 6 Cast
Virgin River seems to be one of the few shows with a pretty large cast that has managed to see mostly everyone return from year to year, and fans can, luckily, expect that to happen again in Season 6.
Tudum revealed in late February 2024 that all of our main players will return. So, let’s go ahead and take a look at who we’ll be seeing in the cozy mountain town once again!
- Alexandra Breckinridge (Mel)
- Martin Henderson (Jack)
- Annette O’Toole (Hope)
- Tim Matheson (Doc)
- Colin Lawrence (Preacher)
- Zibby Allen (Brie)
- Marco Grazzini (Mike)
- Benjamin Hollingsworth (Brady)
- Sarah Dugdale (Lizzie)
- Mark Ghanimé (Cameron)
- Kai Bradbury (Denny)
- Kandyse McClure (Kaia)
Seeing as how all of our favorites will be back, we can also probably expect to see supporting actors like Teryl Rothery (Muriel), Jenny Cooper (Mel’s sister, Joey), Gwynyth Walsh (Jo Ellen), Keith MacKechnie (Nick), and others return, as well.
Callum Kerr And Happy Death Day’s Jessica Rothe Join The Virgin River Season 6 Cast
It was in September 2024 that Netflix made a great casting announcement when it revealed that not only will we definitely see Mel’s parents during 1970s-era flashbacks, but that both roles had been cast!
As seen above, Jessica Rothe (the Happy Death Day franchise) will portray Mel’s mom, Sarah, during the scenes set around 1972. She’s described as being funny, free-spirited and as having a taste for activism and adventure while attempting to avoid “the conventional and traditional life of a young woman in the ’70s.”
The city girl will pass through town and happen upon Mel’s eventual father, Everett, as portrayed by Callum Kerr (One Piece). He’s a “freewheeling singer-songwriter with a poet’s soul” who’s “skimming through life in a VW van” until he meets Sarah and begins to hope for more. So, it sounds like we’ll definitely be treated to yet another emotional and romantic love story this season!
John Allen Nelson Will Be Back As Mel’s Dad
Tudum also confirmed that actor John Allen Nelson, who debuted as Mel’s biological father, Everett Reid, in Season 5 Episode 12 has been added to the cast. That episode saw Mel and Jack track down the man her mother had an affair with after a shockingly short search led them to find out that he’d been in the small town this entire time. We’ll get into more details later, but he will play an important part in the new season.
Some ‘Returning Favorites’ Have Been Promised
Showrunner Patrick Sean Smith told Tudum that some of the surprises in Virgin River Season 6 will be character related, as fans will “be surprised by some returning favorites from the past.” He could be referring to a character like Ricky (Grayson Gurnsey), who left town and his job at Jack’s Bar in Season 4 for basic training after enlisting in the Marines.
Smith also spoke to Deadline in November 2023 about the next season, and teased that some of the show’s villains will be back, as well. Every fan who saw the last few episodes of Season 5 will know that not only did drug-runner Calvin (David Cubitt) actually survive that boat explosion in Season 4 Episode 9, but his former right-hand man, Jimmy (Ian Tracey), who’s still in prison right now, is back on the scene in a scary way that we’ll get into more in a bit.
The Virgin River Season 6 Story
Though the length of Charmaine’s pregnancy will no longer be an issue for fans, as the showrunner confirmed that previous seasons had picked up, at most, a few weeks after each other, Season 6 will be a rarity. Smith also confirmed to Tudum that the episodes will start a few months after the Christmas-themed ending of Season 5. This will put the town “deeper into springtime,” and, presumably, way closer to some welcome events.
He also teased that there will be “new directions” for characters like Kaia, Preacher and Brady, with the fire chief being “pulled into Preacher’s past sins,” and Brady volunteering at the station under her command. Of course, by the spring poor Brady could be very deep into his romance with seemingly sweet single mom, Lark (Elise Gatien), who we now know is working with Jimmy to get revenge on him. As the showrunner told Entertainment Weekly in December 2023 about the criminal:
He definitely is a nemesis to Brady. And we're just getting a hint of what Jimmy's up to get back at Brady. Season 6 will tell us all.
Brady’s trying so hard to stay out of trouble for real this time, and here it comes knocking on his door again! This just goes to show that a couple of bad decisions can make the rest of your life very difficult.
We Might See ‘Babies And Wedding Bells’
Smith’s chat with Tudum did hint at some story details, as he noted that “babies and wedding bells are never off the table on Virgin River.” A time jump of a few months could very well mean that the mayor’s chief of staff, expectant mom Lizzie, is showing her baby bump and preparing to welcome her little bundle of joy with Denny (who I sure hope has a job by then, seeing as how he left Stanford pre-med to stay with her).
We could also get a look at Charmaine’s twins with Calvin (I am STILL STUNNED by that baby-daddy reveal!), and see how she attempts to keep one of the town’s Big Bad crime lords out of their lives.
As for those wedding bells, Mel and Jack got engaged at the end of Season 4, and the end of the fifth season saw them agree to buy the Anderson farm, which was ruined by the wildfire. Smith noted to Tudum that the couple, who’ve been through a lot (including a heartbreaking miscarriage ) in just a few months “will advance on their path to parenthood while also turning Lilly’s farm into their ultimate dream home,” so part of their plan might include getting married on their new property, as Mel suggested at the end of Season 5.
We’ll Get More Details About Mel’s Father
Viewers (as well as Mel and her sister) were shocked to find out that the man who raised Mel was not her biological father. The finale saw this new character, Everett Reid, decide to be a part of her life, and left us with a big cliffhanger when he announced that he had something important to tell her.
As noted before, the new episodes will bring fans more of Everett (the current day and 1970s versions), and when the showrunner spoke to Deadline about it in November 2023, he told the outlet:
I think [what] we’re exploring more in Season 6 is who Everett Reid is, what his backstory is, what his connection to Virgin River was when he met her mom and then also what it is today, since it’s a small town. I grew up in a small town, everybody knows everybody, so everybody has an opinion of everybody. And I think that’s what we’re jumping into in Season 6 is that relationship of Everett with the town as well as Everett and Mel.
He also noted that Mel’s dad is “carrying a long-held secret,” but we don’t know yet whether or not that’s what he wanted to talk to her about, or an additional mystery that will need to be uncovered. Either way, it sounds as though there may be a reason why Everett has never been a major player in town, despite living there for so many years, and I can’t wait to learn more!
Filming Began In February 2024 And May Be Finished By Now
When the surprise news came in February 2024 that a spinoff is being planned which will focus on Mel’s mother and her affair with Everett, it was also revealed by Deadline that production on the new season, which was delayed by the WGA and SAG/AFTRA strikes in 2023, had finally begun.
There was more good news at the end of May, when Martin Henderson (who will also direct an episode this season) took to Instagram and shared an update on filming, which noted that he was in the process of “shooting the last few scenes,” meaning that principal photography could have been completed within the first few days of June.
There Will Be 10 Episodes In Season 6
After action-packed fourth and fifth seasons that delivered two more episodes than Seasons 1-3 (for a total of 12) Virgin River will be returning to its tried and true episode count of 10 for the sixth installment. Smith noted to Deadline when talking about villains returning that this season will have 10 episodes, and that will probably be the case for the drama “moving forward.”
You can bet that more will be revealed about Virgin River Season 6 in the months to come, so be sure to bookmark this guide so you can stay updated on all the news!
