Virgin River Season 7's release on Netflix is on the way as fans wait for the new season to be ready.
In October 2024, Virgin River was renewed for a seventh season, which came before Season 6 even began airing in December.
Virgin River Season 7's Filming Status
After Virgin River's Season 7's renewal came in October 2024, the new season is now in the midst of filming.
The show's official Instagram account confirmed that filming began on March 13 with a pair of photos featuring the main cast of Virgin River. The big question now is when exactly the new season will be ready to air on Netflix.
So When Will Virgin River Season 7 Release?
For perspective, Season 4's filming schedule began on December 7, 2021 before new episodes made their arrival on July 20, 2022 (a seven-month gap).
Season 5 was then filmed between July 18 and November 21, 2022, with those episodes debuting 10 months after the start of filming (September 7, 2023). This extended delay was due to the writers' and actors' strikes of 2023.
For Season 6, filming ran from February 22 to May 31, 2024, with the new season starting its run on Netflix on December 19 (seven months later).
Should Season 7's filming schedule move forward without any issues, it's expected that new episodes will be ready for a streaming debut late this year, possibly sometime in December 2025.
What Will Happen in Virgin River Season 7?
Outside of an unfortunate exit for Mark Ghanimé's Cameron Hayek in Season 6, Season 7 is set to bring back most of the main cast Virgin River fans have come to know and love since 2019. Additionally, it's been confirmed that the new season will pick up a mere two hours from where its predecessor left off.
As part of a deeper dive into multiple relationships (which comes after Jack and Mel's long-awaited wedding in Season 6), fans are anticipating a new look into Brie and Jack's parents sleeping together. Also important to remember is Lizzie's pregnancy, which should be in its latter stages after first starting in Season 6.
On top of those romance-based storylines, there is an expectation that Season 7 will pull back more of the curtain on Mel Monroe's origin story, which has already been tragic.
Speaking with Deadline, showrunner Patrick Sean Smith teased the exploration of "a little bit more of Mel's origins as a midwife," which eventually led to her working as a nurse. It will also help provide more of an understanding of Mel's relationship with babies and birth mothers through her work and friends:
"We are exploring a little bit more of Mel’s origins as a midwife, which we understand led to her choice of becoming a nurse, and a bit of her calling came from the emotional experience she had with her mother’s illness and passing. It’s getting to understand in a deeper way Mel’s relationships with babies, her relationships with birth mothers, and digging into that part of her calling as well."
Although Season 7 is still quite a ways from hitting Netflix, plenty of key storylines from Season 6 will be ripe for more exploration as this series continues to develop.
