How Long Will ‘Virgin River’ Last? Showrunner & Stars Weigh In

Considering how gorgeous the town is and how much we love the characters and their relationships, it’s hard to imagine Virgin River ending. The Netflix drama, based on Robyn Carr’s books, dropped two holiday episodes in November, and it has already been renewed for a sixth season. But are those who work on it thinking about the series wrapping up?

For showrunner Patrick Sean Smith, there’s “no end in sight,” he told TV Insider. “I think as long as these characters are living their lives, and we’re telling the stories in deep personal emotional ways, then I hope the series can continue on for many, many, many seasons to come.”

After all, Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) just met her biological father — whose ominous “I have something to tell you” is taking us into Season 6 — and she and Jack (Martin Henderson) have yet to get married. (It’s coming!)

Breckenridge is a bit more realistic about the series’ future, pointing out, “We are on Netflix, so we don’t know.” In fact, she added, “I always said from Season 1 that we were going to get canceled immediately just because that was sort of the model at the time. It was like there was a season or three seasons, then [a show was canceled], but we keep going.”

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Henderson, too, has wondered about the show’s longevity. “Honestly, when we first started the show, I don’t think anybody [thought it would last as long as it has]. You just try to get through the first season and hope that it’s good and that people like it, and maybe you’ll get another season, maybe you’ll do three,” he said. “But we’re getting ready to do Season 6. It’s quite unusual, and I wouldn’t have anticipated necessarily that we would’ve come this far.”

Breckenridge knows that the show will end at some point, and this should be good news for fans: Chances are that we’ll know ahead of time. Presumably, that means that they’ll be able to write a proper ending, rather than leaving fans with a cliffhanger and no closure. “I think at this point, going into Season 6, there definitely will be a time where, if we are going to close out the series, we’ll say we’re closing out the series, and we will let the fans know ahead of time as you do with a successful show after so many seasons,” the star said.

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But are Breckenridge and Henderson ready to say goodbye to Mel, Jack, and the world of Virgin River? “It’s beautiful in Vancouver. I love filming there. I love the cast; I love our crew. Over the years, you really do become like a family when you’re working with such lovely people. So obviously, I would not want to give that up, but there always is an ending point, right? And I do look forward to working on other things in the future,” shared Breckenridge. “I haven’t really worked on many things since I started the show. I [worked] on This is Us every now and then, but not really anything else. So I would like to sink my teeth into something eventually.”

So what would she like to do? “Maybe Netflix will put me in one of their movies.”

As for Henderson, he’s interested as long as there are good scripts. “One thing I really don’t like is when writers change a character midway through a show — they run out of ideas, they just start trying to throw new things in there to keep it interesting, and they betray the character,” he explained. “As long as that doesn’t happen, I think I’d be happy playing the role, but I wouldn’t want to get into that territory where you start doing gimmicky things just to keep it on the air, just to keep it interesting or fresh. If it starts to lose its authenticity, then I think I would probably bow out at that point.”

After all, Henderson is a fan of his character the way he is now. “One of the things I like about the character is he’s clearly a fantasy of a man,” he said. “He is very charming and romantic and loyal and strong and noble, and he’s a leader, and he’s very altruistic in his service to his country, to his community. He has all these really heroic qualities, but he also has a lot of demons that he’s dealing with, and he has things that trouble him, and he has a lot of vulnerable moments, not necessarily publicly, but stuff that the audience sees him deal with. And I think that’s really interesting. So, as long as the character remains interesting to play, I could see myself doing it for a bit longer.”

Virgin River, Season 6, TBA, Netflix