Sex Education season 4 hasn’t yet been confirmed by Netflix, but given the school-based sitcom is one of the best Netflix shows you can watch right now, we predict it won't be long before the streamer once again green-lights a return to Moordale Secondary.
The show’s third season finally arrived in September 2021, after a slew of pandemic-related delays pushed its initial release date back by almost a year, so the dust is still settling on the reception to its latest crop of hormone-filled episodes.
Still, that doesn’t stop fans speculating on the arrival of Sex Education season 4, so we’ve rounded up all the latest news, rumors and tidbits that might give us a clue as to where the mega-popular Netflix show could go next.
Naturally, spoilers for Sex Education’s first three seasons are disclosed ahead, so proceed with caution.
Has it been renewed? Not yet, though the cast seems open to the possibility, and the popularity of the show appears to have endured based on its Netflix chart performance.
Story predictions: With Moordale cash-strapped and set to close at the end of Sex Education season 3, we could see this forming the arc of a potential season 4.
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Sex Education season 4 release date predictions
At present, there’s no confirmed release date for Sex Education season 4 because Netflix hasn’t yet renewed the show following the release of season 3.
As above, the show’s third season only just arrived on the streamer, and while it shot into Netflix’s top 10 most-watched list almost immediately, it’s likely the company will hold off on renewing Sex Education for a fourth season until a month down the line when it can judge its performance.
Of course, there’s no guarantee that the show will return at all. In a recent video interview with Cosmopolitan UK, star Asa Butterfield weighed in on the likelihood of a Sex Education season 4: “We don’t know, it’s out of our hands at this point. I wish I could tell you more, but I genuinely don’t know.”
“I’d love to do a fourth season,” he added, “but at the same time, we've been doing [the show] for three years now, so I’d be happy to say goodbye to these characters. We’ll have to see.”
Gillian Anderson echoed Butterfield’s sentiments in a chat with US outlet Newsweek, saying that a fourth season “has been discussed” but that “at the end of the day, it's nobody's call but those guys at the top.”
“I think,” Anderson speculated, “given how much people are enjoying it, I don't see why it wouldn't [continue], but things change. Things are changing at Netflix daily, as we speak.”
The future, then, is uncertain for the show, especially given that there’s only so many years Moordale’s students can remain at the fictional school before it becomes illogical for them to continue roaming the classrooms as twenty-somethings destined for university.
Still, that may indeed be a path the show decides to take, and if Netflix does plan on renewing Sex Eduction for a fourth season, it’s likely to follow the release schedule of previous entries – a pandemic-hampered third season notwithstanding – which each landed in January of 2019 and 2020, respectively.
January 2022 will be too soon for a fourth season, so between September 2022 and January 2023 seems a more likely window, at this early stage.
Sex Education season 4 cast predictions
As for who is likely to return to the show if it is renewed, we’d anticipate seeing series mainstays Asa Butterfield, Ncuti Gatwa and Gillian Anderson all reprise their roles as Otis, Eric and Jean, respectively.
The likes of Connor Swindells (Adam), Aimee Lou Wood (Aimee), Kedar Williams-Stirling (Jackson), Mimi Keene (Ruby) and Mikael Persbrandt (Jakob) all seem likely to return, too, along with most of the show’s new season 3 characters, like headteacher Hope (Jemima Kirke) and new student Cal (Dua Saleh).
The future of Emma Mackey’s Maeve Wiley is less clear, though, given her departure to America at the end of season 3. She’s still a major player in Sex Education’s ongoing will-they-won’t-they narrative between Otis and Maeve, so we’d of course anticipate her return at some point, it’s just not immediately clear whether that would be in season four, or perhaps a further season later down the line.
If we were betting on it, though, we reckon Maeve will be back along with the others.
We'd also expect several new actors to join the show, too, though hopefully in a more substantial capacity than the greatly under-used Jason Isaacs in season 3.
Sex Education season 4 story predictions
As above, Sex Education’s third season conjured an air of finality for certain narrative threads – but it blew open a lot more, too.
It seems likely that Maeve’s jetting off to America will have consequences for her screen time in a possible season 4, which may see Otis forced to get over his love for her once and for all, despite the promise of a mutual romance before Maeve’s decision to leave the country. New episodes may pick up if and when she returns from her travels, but it seems more logical that the show would explore how Otis copes in her absence.
Other characters, though, seem in for an even rockier ride. Adam and Eric decided to go their separate ways after a season of romantic highs and lows, with the latter’s kissing another man in Nigeria acting as the nail in the coffin for a relationship which always seemed oddly balanced, given Adam’s ongoing journey to understanding his own sexuality. But we also saw Adam growing closer to Eric’s ex Rahim in season 3’s later episodes, suggesting there’s potential for a romance between the pair that once seemed impossible.
Elsewhere, after receiving the results of a paternity test, it seems as though Jean’s new baby daughter, Joy, may not be Jakob’s after all. This twist isn’t confirmed yet, but her shock – and “oh shit!” – at the result suggests the pair are in for some awkward conversations ahead.
Then there’s the question of Jackson and Cal’s relationship moving forward, Hope’s as-yet-unexplored struggle to conceive a child and, in perhaps the biggest plot shake-up of all, the immediate future of Moordale.
In season 3’s final episode, it was revealed that the school would be closing due to a lack of investors – a move supposedly brought about by the students’ reluctance to back down from their calls for sexual liberation on campus.
This could have big implications for Sex Education season 4. Will Moordale’s students and staff be forced to move elsewhere? If so, it’s unlikely everyone would be able to stay together, which would by-and-large kill the dynamic of the show. A more likely outcome might see the series' main characters rally alongside the local community to generate some last-ditch funding for the school, a challenge which would probably occupy an entire season.
That would be our best guess for the main narrative hook of Sex Education’s fourth season, if indeed it does get the green light from Netflix. Sure, it’ll be interesting to see how Otis copes in Maeve’s absence, how Adam deals with his break-up with Eric and how Jean plans on telling Jakob that her child probably isn’t his – but without Moordale school, there’s no Sex Education.
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