For five years now the good (and bad) characters of Virgin River have brought us a ton of small town romance, familial strife, emotional reveals and more dramatic twists than Mel Monroe could shake a stethoscope at. As expected, it sounds like the upcoming Virgin River Season 6 will be no different, and we already know quite a bit about the new season. Now, let’s dig into what we know about the hit drama that you can watch with your Netflix subscription, 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!
What Is The Virgin River Season 6 Release Date?
As of March 2024, there is no exact release date yet for Virgin River Season 6, but Netflix revealed in early February 2024 that it won’t return until some point in 2025. As mentioned above, the series has aired yearly since 2019 so it’s unfortunate that we won’t see the episodes hit the streamer at some point during this year.
We also don’t know whether or not the season will release all at one time, as Seasons 1-4 did, or be split into two parts, as was the case with Season 5.
All Of The Major Cast Members Return For Season 6
Virgin River may be one of the few shows with a rather expansive cast that has managed to see pretty much everyone return from year to year, and fans can, luckily, expect the same in Season 6.
Tudum revealed in late February 2024 that all of our main players will return. So, this means we can rely on seeing 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), and the most recent addition, Kandyse McClure, who began her run as firefighter Kaia in Season 5.
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.
John Allen Nelson Will Be Back As Mel’s Dad
One new addition that’s been confirmed by Tudum is actor John Allen Nelson, who debuted as Mel’s biological father, Everett Reid, in Season 5 Episode 12. 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 had been in Virgin River this whole 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 are set to be character related, as fans will “be surprised by some returning favorites from the past.” That could refer to characters 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 return. Anyone 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, pictured above), is back on the scene in a scary way that we’ll get into more in a bit.
Virgin River Season 6 Will Begin A Few Months After The Christmas Episodes
The length of Charmaine’s pregnancy is no longer a big question mark/concern for some fans, as the showrunner set the record straight by confirming that each season picks up, at most, a few weeks after the previous one. Season 6, then, will be a rarity, as Smith also confirmed to Tudum that the action will start a few months after the Christmas episodes of Season 5. This will put the town “deeper into springtime,” and, presumably, way closer to some welcome events.
Of course, this probably also means that poor Brady is likely to 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. And, as the showrunner told Entertainment Weekly in December 2023 about the still-imprisoned Jimmy:
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!
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 is likely to see the mayor’s chief of staff, expectant mom Lizzie, 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 the fourth season, and the end of the fifth 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 stunned to find out that the man who raised Mel was not her biological father. The finale saw new character Everett Reid decide to be a part of her life after all, and left us with a big cliffhanger when he announced that he had something important to tell her.
As noted above, the new episodes will deliver more of Everett, 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.
Sounds like 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
When the surprise news came in February 2023 that a spinoff is being planned which will focus on the younger days of Mel’s mother and her affair with Everett, it was also revealed by Deadline that production on the new season, which were delayed by the WGA and SAG/AFTRA strikes in 2023, had finally begun. This, obviously, accounts for the lack of a premiere date in 2024.
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.”
That’s a lot of info for a season that just started filming, so you can bet that more will be revealed in the months to come!
