‘Only Murders in the Building’ Gets Homicidal in the Theater With Season 3 Trailer

The podcasting trio from Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building — made up of Mabel (Selena Gomez), Charles (Steve Martin), and Oliver (Martin Short) — is a magnet for murder. The trailer for the show’s third season, which premieres on Aug. 8, finds them caught up in another whodunit mystery, though the silver lining is that at least this time the homicide they’re attempting to solve didn’t actually occur in their apartment building. But it’s not much better that it happened in a Broadway theater on the opening night of Oliver’s grand comeback as a director — or that it was his leading man Ben Glenroy (Paul Rudd) that dropped dead on stage.

The suspects around the murders the trio solved in the first two seasons of the show were generally easier to read. There was a flirtatious artist, an underappreciated assistant, multiple mean-spirited old women, and acquaintances from the past resurfacing at suspiciously convenient times.

But this time around, the killer is assumed to be someone involved in the theater — a place where actors have perfected the art of lying and make-believe through performance. “Your show is a death trap,” Charles tells Oliver. “Today alone, I almost died three times.”

Among this cast of suspects is Loretta Durkin, portrayed by Meryl Streep. In the trailer, she pleads with Oliver not to fire her after she pulls out a strange accent during the cast table read, but Ben wants her gone. But there’s also Kimber, who Charles describes as a “TikTok-addicted starlet” whose motive might have been to inspire a meme online.

Everyone is fair game, but Oliver, Mabel, and Charles have developed some expert detective skills over the last two seasons. Plus, they’ll have some help from a familiar face (Detective Williams) and a currently unnamed character portrayed by Jesse Williams, though the jury is still out on whether he should be trusted.

“At least you had the consideration to keep the body out of the building this time,” the trio’s neighbor Uma Heller (Jackie Hoffman) sarcastically offers as the elevator doors close in the trailer. When the curtain goes up, maybe they’ll find some answers.