A prequel for Virgin River has been in the works for over two years — so what has caused the ongoing delay?
Based on Robyn Carr‘s book series, Virgin River, which premiered in 2019, follows the lives of residents living in a small town in Northern California, including Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) and her love interest Jack (Martin Henderson).
The series also stars Colin Lawrence, Annette O’Toole, Tim Matheson, Benjamin Hollingsworth, Sarah Dugdale, Zibby Allen, Marco Grazzini, and Kai Bradbury.
Us Weekly confirmed in December 2023 that Netflix was in development on a spinoff series. The prequel would follow Mel’s parents: Sarah Jensen (Jessica Rothe) and Everett Reed (Callum Kerr). Mel found out the identity of her biological father (John Allen Nelson) during the Virgin River Christmas special.
Season 6 of Virgin River teased Sarah and Everett’s origin story through flashback scenes of the couple when they were younger. At the time, showrunner Patrick Sean Smith previously hinted that fans would learn more about Sarah and Everett’s romance.
“What we’re exploring more in season 6 [of Virgin River] 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,” he told Deadline in December 2023.
Ahead of season 7, Smith said that the Sarah and Everett flashbacks are just the beginning of “expanding the Virgin River-verse.”
“[It would] expand Sarah and Everett’s story more while also expanding and learning more about the history of Virgin River,” Smith told Us in December 2024. “One reference that was made in the pilot that had never really been explored before was Hope says that the McCrae Cabin is a place that people within 50 miles know all about, which implies there she has a sort of family legacy to this area that we haven’t really gotten to scratch the surface of.”
Smith didn’t provide a timeline for when the show could premiere, adding, “When we committed to the idea of introducing Everett, it felt like a great opportunity as somebody who we know has resided in the area but has kind of removed and isolated himself from the community to have this history and have this relationship to this town and to this area.”
He continued: “[It] felt like an opportunity that we could introduce a new couple, which the show has done fairly consistently over the course of the seasons, and not inherit another couple that we have to keep servicing in the present.”
After season 7 was released in March, Smith confirmed the show was still in “development.” Deadline reported that the initial version of the spinoff did not pan out — with Smith currently brainstorming new ideas.
Virgin River is currently streaming on Netflix.
