EXCLUSIVE: Another year, another early renewal and another record for Netflix‘s popular romantic drama Virgin River. Mere days after production wrapped on the upcoming seventh season of the series starring Alexandra Breckenridge and Martin Henderson, it has been renewed for Season 8, which will once again consist of 10 episodes.
With the pickup, Virgin River is believed to be Netflix’s longest-running live-action scripted series. It has surpassed comedy Grace and Frankie and comedy-drama Orange Is the New Black‘s seven-season runs and has edged Spanish teen drama Elite‘s eight seasons with 84 vs. 64 episodes across them. (Grace and Frankie‘s episode count remains a Netflix high mark at 94 though the show is half-hour and Virgin River is one-hour, translating to roughly 70+ hours produced for the drama vs. 45+ produced for the comedy.)
It is not surprising that Virgin River, one of Netflix’s “blue sky”, “comfort” series, has eclipsed flashier, higher-profile shows on the platform with its longevity. It is based on popular IP, Robyn Carr’s novels; it employs a sustainable premise, the relationships among characters in a small town; it features a strong cast led by Alexandra Breckenridge and Martin Henderson and anchored by veterans Tim Matheson and Annette O’Toole; and it boasts appealing economics, filming in Canada in a handful of primary locations with little stunts or special effects involved. A brief Mexico shoot for the upcoming seventh season, believed to involve just a couple of cast members, including Henderson and Breckenridge, marks the first time the show has left Vancouver.
It is not surprising that Virgin River, one of Netflix’s “blue sky”, “comfort” series, has eclipsed flashier, higher-profile shows on the platform with its longevity. It is based on popular IP, Robyn Carr’s novels; it employs a sustainable premise, the relationships among characters in a small town; it features a strong cast led by Alexandra Breckenridge and Martin Henderson and anchored by veterans Tim Matheson and Annette O’Toole; and it boasts appealing economics, filming in Canada in a handful of primary locations with little stunts or special effects involved. A brief Mexico shoot for the upcoming seventh season, believed to involve just a couple of cast members, including Henderson and Breckenridge, marks the first time the show has left Vancouver.
There is another factor into Virgin River’s swift Season 8 order. Cognizant of fans’ frustration over long gaps between seasons that have been stretching to as much as two years recently, impacted by the 2023 strikes, streamers have stepped up early renewals to help minimize the wait. The pickups are coming quicker than in the past.
Virgin River, which has been able so far to deliver a new season every calendar year since its 2019 launch, was renewed for Season 7 last October, more than four months after Season 6 had wrapped production and nearly two months before it premiered. The Season 8 pickup comes a week or so after filming wrapped on Season 7 with the short trip to Mexico after the primary Vancouver shoot ended June 22 and about six months ahead of its debut. (Netflix has not set a Season 7 premiere date but the show was left off the streamer’s 2025 slate released in January. It is projected to debut in December 2025 at the earliest and more likely in January-February 2026.)
Similarly, The Diplomat was picked up for Season 4 in May, months ahead of its fall Season 3 premiere. The Season 3 renewal in October 2024 came three weeks before the Season 2 premiere.
Virgin River is a romance story that kicked off with nurse practitioner Melinda Monroe (Breckenridge) moving to the remote California town of Virgin River. Yearning for a fresh start, Monroe discovered that small-town living isn’t quite as simple as she expected and that she had to learn to heal herself before she could truly make Virgin River her home.
The series’ sizable built-in audience on Netflix may have helped the recently acquired Canadian drama Sullivan’s Crossing, another small-town romance based on Carr books, to shoot straight to #1 in the U.S. on the streamer’s Daily Top 10.
The Season 7 of Virgin River is executive produced by showrunner Patrick Sean Smith, Sue Tenney, Amy Palmer Robertson, Roma Roth, Christopher E. Perry, Carr, Erin Cardillo, Richard Keith, and Jennifer Monroe. Co-executive producers include:Ian Hay, Thomas Ian Griffith, Mary Page Keller and Jackson Sinder.
Season 7 returning main cast Includes Breckenridge, Henderson, Matheson, O’Toole, Colin Lawrence, Benjamin Hollingsworth, Allen, Sarah Dugdale, Grazzini, Kai Bradbury and Kandyse McClure.
The actors may have had an inkling about the early renewal: In a video tribute to Season 7 as it wrapped its Vancouver shoot June 22, Lawrence said, “I’ve been so blessed to have been a part of this for the last seven seasons,” adding, “Fingers crossed more to come.”
