Only Murders in the Building will see more deadly true-crime investigations in Season 3, and this time, The Arconia will not be the only setting. Season 2’s finale showed a year-long jump to the theater, where Oliver and Charles are again in the middle of a murder investigation after Paul Rudd’s Ben Gilderoy gets killed on the stage.
The crime drama, starring Selena Gomez, Steve Martin, and Martin Short, wrapped up Season 2 at the end of August, revealing Poppy White as Bunny Fogler’s killer. The finale also set up an opportunity for the show’s creators to diversify beyond the limits of the building for Season 3’s central murder.
But in a recent interview with Variety, co-creator John Hoffman revealed after the Season 2 finale that the creators had a short list of potential killers behind the murder of Bunny Fogler. Hoffman disclosed that prior to the season finale, “I Know Who Did It,” the creators had considered motives for each of the core cast members.
Hoffman named Cinda Canning, Teddy Dimas, Theo Dimas, and Jan Bellows as some of the characters they considered could be written as the killer considering their motives.
We made tracks for many characters. We thought of Cinda. We wondered about Teddy—Teddy certainly had a motive. We thought of Theo, who had a motive. We thought of Jan, even in prison, finding a way to make that happen. I definitely liked the notion that because they were sister seasons, they were necessarily tied, that it’d be a character we knew already.
He also stated the main reason behind their choice to make Poppy White, who was revealed to be a not-dead Becky Butler, the killer.
Making Poppy the killer also allowed this season to delve deeper into the culture of true crime podcasting. There’s a critique running through the episodes about this obsessive consumption of death.
Hoffman also shared how making Poppy the killer was the right choice based on the theme the podcasting followed in the two seasons.
That is central to why we chose her as well. The show is built that way; it’s all a meta-commentary on what we do with these stories. They’re built into my psyche because I was dealing with a murder mystery in my own life. Asking [myself], “Am I OK to be doing this? And how far can we go? How close to the bone is this?” And then hiding that little bit.
John Hoffman also explained how the creators had cleverly and subtly foreshadowed Becky Butler’s real identity under the mask of Poppy White.
There’s a shot that opens Episode 6. It’s Poppy narrating, sitting on a bench by an elevator in the office she works in with Cinda, and the poster directly above her head is “All Is Not OK in Oklahoma.” The headline is “Where’s Becky Butler?” and she’s directly underneath that poster.
With the way the creators have tied up the narrative and setting of the two seasons, it is sensible to open up new locations and suspect lists for Season 3 and the murder of Paul Rudd’s Gilderoy.
While it would have been a close connection to Cinda Canning being the murderer, fans would have loved to see how the show spun its webs to make Ted, Theo, or Jan be the ones to kill Bunny Fogler. It’s going to be at least a year before we’ll see the cast, with new additions, on Hulu again, and we really can’t wait!
About Only Murders in the Building
Only Murders in the Building is an American crime-comedy television series created by Steve Martin and John Hoffman. Season 1 of the series premiered in August 2021, and season 2 was released on 28th June 2022.
The series follows Charles, Oliver, and Mabel, a trio of true-crime-obsessed strangers and wannabe investigators who are brought together when they are framed for a murder that takes place in their building.
The series stars Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez as the main cast. The Hulu original has been renewed for Season 3.
Source: Variety
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