Sex Education season 4 is officially on its way, with Netflix confirming that the new episodes will be arriving on the streamer this fall. It's been a long wait for the return of the hit comedy-drama, as season 3 dropped way back in 2021, but we finally have a date (or a window, at least) to return to school.
There are a few big shakeups on the horizon, as Moordale Secondary was closed down at the end of season 3, and several recurring cast members have revealed that they won't be returning for round four. There are some new actors joining the show, too, including Schitt's Creek's Dan Levy, and we've got the full rundown below in your complete guide to Sex Education season 4.
Sex Education season 4 release window
Netflix has confirmed that Sex Education season 4 will be releasing this fall, just in time for the new school year. While we don't have an exact release date, keep your eyes peeled and we'll update you as soon as we know.
Sex Education season 4 trailer: When can we expect one?
Sex Education season 3 was released in September 2021 and Netflix released the first full-length trailer two weeks before it hit the streamer. If season 4 follows the same time frame, we've got quite a while to wait before we get our first taste of the next installment of the show.
Sex Education season 4 cast
The Sex Education season 4 cast has seen some pretty big changes since the end of season 3, with several confirmed exits. We know that Simone Ashley is definitely not returning as Olivia – Ashley joined the cast of Bridgerton for the show's second season as leading lady Kate Sharma, and she has since confirmed that she's swapped modern-day high school for Regency high society once and for all.
Patricia Allison, who plays Ola, has also confirmed she "won’t be joining the team" for the new season, while Tanya Reynolds, who plays Ola's love interest Lily, is also exiting the show. "I’m not [returning], actually, which is sad, very sad," Reynolds told Radio Times. "It’s just the natural progression of these shows – when you have such big ensemble casts and so many characters, I think you have to let a few older characters go to make way for newer ones, which is absolutely the right thing, the way it should happen."
The next to exit was series regular Rakhee Thakrar, who plays teacher Emily Sands in the drama. "I’m not part of the new series," Thakrar told the Daily Star on Sunday. "I can’t really talk about why. But I’m so proud of the show and grateful to have been part of something so important. There is nothing bad about Sex Education."
Asa Butterfield has confirmed his return to the show as Otis, after posting a picture on set. Gillian Anderson is also back as Otis' sex therapist mother, Jean, along with series regulars Ncuti Gatwa (Eric), Connor Swindells (Adam), Aimee-Lou Wood (Aimee), Kedar Williams-Stirling (Jackson), Dua Saleh (Cal), Mimi Keene (Ruby), Chinenye Ezeudu (Viv), and George Robinson (Isaac). Alistair Petrie and Samantha Spiro are also back as Adam's parents, Michael and Maureen.
Schitt's Creek star Dan Levy has joined the cast as author and professor Thomas Molloy, and shared a photo on set next to Emma Mackey – confirming the announcement and also Maeve's return, although the actor told the Radio Times that she'll be in the show "less consistently".
Season 4 looks likely to be Mackey's last, too, as she tells Total Film: "It's just always tricky, it's different when you're playing a character that is sort of stuck in time. You know, we're playing 17-year-olds, and we're all almost 30, it is a bit weird. It's a blessing because it is a launchpad, and it is something that has given us opportunities in different ways but it's something that I want to gracefully exit from, and be happy that it exists and protect it and enjoy it in the time that it has existed in but yeah, it needs to be left alone now, I think.
"We can all move on and take what we learned from Sex Ed as well because it has been a school, quite literally, for all of us. It's just wonderful to have had that education and to have that baptism of fire and to have just been flung into that whole world. I think it's made us stronger."
Sex Education season 4 plot
Warning: Sex Education season 3 spoilers ahead.
Sex Education season 3 concluded another chapter in Otis and Maeve's will-they-won't-they relationship – the season finale ends with the pair finally getting together before promptly parting ways, as Maeve heads off to the US for a study program over the summer. Season 4, then, will explore whether distance has made either of their hearts grow fonder.
Elsewhere in the season 3 finale, Eric and Adam break up, as Eric is struggling to be in a relationship with someone who isn't comfortable with who they are. Plus, Jean gives birth and recovers from surgery after suffering a hemorrhage during labor. She also receives the results of the baby's paternity test, so it's likely that we'll see the fall-out of that result in season 4.
And, in a move that will probably be the biggest plot point of the new season, the students of Moordale Secondary find out that their school is being sold to developers and are told that they need to find alternative arrangements to finish their education. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the new season "will feature a mix of old and new faces as Sex Education moves on from the shuttered Moordale High in favor of a new school" and we can expect a "creative reset".
"The characters feel like they're in very new territory because they literally are, they're at a new school. A lot of our feeling slightly off-centre is actually also just because of what is happening in the story which is that they are [at] a new school," Aimee Lou Wood told Digital Spy.
"Aimee, particularly, her best friend's in America, she doesn't have a boyfriend for the first time ever, she's at a brand new school where she doesn't have any mates. So there's a lot of newness for all of the characters and I think that that does make the show feel very new."
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