After the mammoth success of The Good Wife and The Good Fight, the franchise was expanded again with the launch of the spin-off, Elsbeth. Since actors like Alan Cumming have been willing to make returns to the hit franchise it was spawned from, the expectations for Elsbeth were high from the TV show’s start. Even though it had so much to live up to, Elsbeth has become a successful addition to CBS’ TV franchise.
Now that the second season of Elsbeth has finished airing, fans have been looking to the show’s future. With that in mind, it is fascinating to look at what has been revealed about the upcoming third season of Elsbeth.
Who Will Be Starring In Elsbeth Season 3?
In the modern television landscape, there are a lot of ensemble dramas that have a long list of credited stars. From the moment that Elsbeth premiered, the show has bucked that trend, since the first two seasons only featured three starring actors.
As devoted fans will certainly already know, Elsbeth’s three stars during the first two seasons were Carrie Preston, Carra Patterson, and Wendell Pierce. When a show revolves around three characters, the most important thing to know is if the actors who brought them to life will stick around.
Based on what has been reported about Elsbeth’s third season, the fate of the show’s main actors seems clear, unless more news breaks soon. Unfortunately, there has been some heartbreaking news about the cast of Elsbeth’s third season.
When a show is renewed for a new season, the networks typically don’t make statements about the stars returning. After all, fans typically assume that the stars will continue on the show unless they are informed otherwise.
Screen Rant’s The Good Wife and The Good Fight | Characters Fans Want On | Elsbeth |
|---|---|---|
Character | Actor | Rank |
Cary Agos | Matt Czuchry | #7 |
Alicia Florrick | Julianna Marguiles | #6 |
Diane Lockhart | Christine Barinski | #5 |
Kalinda Sharma | Archie Panjabi | #4 |
Marissa Gold | Sarah Steele | #3 |
Eli Gold | Alan Cummings | #2 |
Robyn Burdine | Jess Weixler | #1 |
Based on that principle, it seems clear that Carrie Preston and Wendell Pierce will star in Elsbeth’s third season. The reason that seems clear is that there hasn’t been any news about either of those actors leaving Elsbeth.
On the other hand, that unfortunately isn’t the case for all of Elsbeth’s stars.
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Unfortunately for fans, it turns out that Carra Patterson will not star in Elsbeth’s third season.
In March 2025, Cinema Blend published an article with a telling title. “Elsbeth And Kaya’s Friendship Is One Of The Most Powerful Examples Of Female Friendship On TV Right Now, And I Need To Talk About Why.” That article and others like it show why it is so sad that Carra Patterson will not be starring in Elsbeth Season 3.
In May 2025, a Deadline article quoted a statement that Carra gave them about her Elsbeth future. That statement began with Carra revealing that she was no longer going to be starring in Elsbeth after the show’s second season.
My character, Kaya Blanke, is embarking on a new adventure as the story continues to unfold, and I am excited to do the same.
For fans who’d come to care about Carra and her character, the fact that she will no longer be starring in Elsbeth is very disappointing. That said, the news about Carra’s plans involving Elsbeth aren’t all bad.
As Carra Patterson’s IMDb page shows, she appeared in a long list of movies and TV shows before Elsbeth. For example, Carra played the wife of Eazy E in Straight Outta Compton and she appeared in many episodes of the shows Turner & Hooch and The Arrangement.
As Carra’s statement to Deadline continued, she addressed the fact that she will continue being a part of Elsbeth going forward. However, Carra is going from one of Elsbeth’s stars to a guest star role.
But we will see Kaya again – fans will find out what she’s been up to in her new role as ‘Detective’ next season when I come back to guest star and play with Carrie and Wendell.
Based on how Carra’s statement ended, she didn’t appear to be ending her Elsbeth starring role on a bad note.
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Instead, Carra finished her statement by expressing how thankful she was to the team behind Elsbeth and the show’s fans.
“I am beyond grateful to the cast, crew, and producers, and of course, the fans, for all the love and support.”
When Will Elsbeth’s Third Season Be Filmed And Premiere?
Before Elsbeth’s second season finished airing, fans already knew that the show was set to return for more. Not only that, news about part of the plans for the filming of Elsbeth’s third season had already been revealed, even though most fans didn’t realize it.
In April 2025, Carrie Preston appeared on the “Melissa Rivers’ Group Text” podcast, as can be seen on YouTube. During the resulting conversation, Carrie revealed when the third season of Elsbeth was set to begin filming.
We start back on Season 3 in July. Love it.
With that information in mind, the other thing to consider is when Elsbeth’s third season will premiere.
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Unlike the filming date, news about when Elsbeth Season 3 will begin airing hasn’t been revealed. However, based on the show’s history, it seems like the date that the new season is set to premiere depends on how many episodes season three will have.
Both of Elsbeth’s first two seasons ended in May. However, the show’s first season, which consisted of ten episodes, premiered in February and the twenty-episode second season premiered in October. If those patterns hold, the third season will begin airing in October 2025 if it is twenty episodes long and February 2026 if there are ten episodes.
Elsbeth Season 3 Won’t Follow Familiar Patterns
Since Carra Patterson will not be starring in Elsbeth’s third season, fans may be expecting the show to introduce a new character to replace her. However, Elsbeth’s showrunner, Jonathan Tolins, revealed things are not going to be that simple.
In May 2025, Jonathan told TV Insider that he wasn’t going to introduce a new Elsbeth character that would be the same as Kaya had been.
“I don’t want to shoehorn another character into exactly the same role that Kaya played in Elsbeth’s life. I do think that Elsbeth usually must be working with a uniformed officer because she’s not a detective. She can’t just go to these places without someone. So we’ve started introducing some new characters.”
Considering how much fans cared about Kaya, it is good to know that Elsbeth isn’t going to try to clone her with a new character. It is also exciting that the show could be freshened up with new dynamics.
Elsbeth
- Release Date
-
February 29, 2024
- Network
-
CBS
- Directors
-
Robert King, Ron Underwood
- Writers
-
Michelle King, Robert King
