My Brilliant Friend is coming to an end at HBO. But not quite yet.
The WarnerMedia-owned cable network and Italian public broadcaster Rai have renewed the series, which is based on Elena Ferrante’s book series, for a fourth and final season.
It comes as the third season – My Brilliant Friend: Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay – launched in the U.S. last month.
The fourth season will be based on Ferrante’s The Story Of The Lost Child, the fourth book in her quadrilogy.
Created By Saverio Costanzo, My Brilliant Friend is produced by The Apartment, Fremantle Italy, Wildside and Fandango.
The third season, which stars Margherita Mazzucco and Gaia Girace, follows Elena Greco and Lila, otherwise known as Raffaella Cerullo, both now grown women, during the great open sea of the 1970s. Lila took her young son and left her husband and a comfortable life to work as a factory worker in the toughest of conditions, while Elena left the neighborhood to study in Pisa, and is now an author of a successful novel that has paved the way to an affluent and cultivated world. They now navigate a scenario of hopes and uncertainties, still united by their strong and ambivalent bond.
The series is produced by Lorenzo Mieli with Paolo Sorrentino and Jennifer Schuur exec producing. The story and screenplays are by Elena Ferrante, Francesco Piccolo, Laura Paolucci and Saverio Costanzo.
Francesca Orsi, EVP, HBO Programming, said, “When we decided to bring Elena Ferrante’s masterpiece Neapolitan Novels to the screen, we knew Elena and Lila’s story had to be told in its entirety. It’s both thrilling and bittersweet to embark on this fourth and final season. We’re deeply grateful to the entire creative team led by Saverio Costanzo and Lorenzo Mieli, and to our season three director Daniele Luchetti. We look forward to completing the quartet and know ‘The Story of the Lost Child’ will bring the series to a close with the same heart, intimacy, and epic storytelling that has defined Elena and Lila’s journey from the beginning.”
Maria Pia Ammirati, director of Rai Fiction, added, ” What lies behind this success is the precious opportunity offered by Elena Ferrante’s four Neapolitan Novels and the realistic, exciting and originally Italian imagery that has brought to life the audio-visual transposition of the friendship between Lila and Lenù. This mix between a strongly characterized environment, marked first of all by the dialect, then by its humanity and by the emotions heightened through the power of a female friendship, has proved to be a driving force for seriality, as well as a showcase for the creativity and expertise of Italy’s audio-visual industry.”