Only Murders in the Building season 3 guide as new episodes land on Disney+

Riding the wave of true crime podcasts and combining the skills of comedy legends Steve Martin and Martin Short, Only Murders in the Building has become a quick hit with audiences.

Together with Selena Gomez, the trio have spent two seasons cracking a couple of grizzly murders, each of which is focused largely around the Arconia — the swanky, New York apartment block in which they all live.

Mixing heart, humour and plenty of the intrigue you might expect from a series that revolves around murder mysteries, the show’s second season saw the trio wrongly framed for a killing before ending on a tantalising cliffhanger.

Read more: Only Murders in the Building recap ahead of season 3

As a new batch of episodes arrive on Disney+, here is everything you need to know about Only Murders in the Building season three.

Reader beware: spoilers lurk below.

Only Murders in the Building season 3 release date

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Only Murders in the Building is officially back for a new outing. The first two episodes of season 3 landed on Disney+ on Tuesday, 8 August.

The remaining eight episodes will be available to stream every Tuesday until the season finale on 3 October.

Only Murders in the Building season 3 reviews

Critics have largely been impressed by the new season, which has racked up an impressive 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Yahoo's Martin Carr lauded the show's writers for "switching up the formula and introducing interesting new characters" to keep things fresh, although the Evening Standard highlighted issues with its "over-complicated plot" and "stale set pieces".

Read the full verdicts below.

Yahoo TV: Selena Gomez whodunnit successfully updates its formula (3-min read)

Evening Standard: This third outing has lost its sparkle (4-min read)

The Telegraph: Star-packed and delectably unserious (3-min read)

Daily Beast: Still lethally delightful (6-min read)

Only Murders in the Building season 3 cast

Only Murders in the Building focuses on Steve Martin’s Charles-Haden Savage, a semi-retired actor who once starred in a popular crime show called Brazzos.

He’s joined by Martin Short’s Oliver Putnam, his fellow Arconia neighbour and a Broadway director whose struggles with money have affected his stage career.

The duo are joined by fellow Arconia resident Mabel Mora, played by Selena Gomez. Mabel is an artist who was childhood friends with season one’s murder victim.

Whilst trying to figure out who committed the show’s first major crime, Mabel is drawn into Charles and Oliver’s investigations, and ultimately 'Only Murders in the Building', their true crime podcast.

Throughout the show’s two series, the trio have been joined by a number of guest stars and cameo appearances from the likes of Tina Fey, Jimmy Fallon and Nathan Lane as podcast financier Teddy Dimas. While Lane has confirmed that he won't appear in season three, it's unclear if any of the series' other guest stars will make a return.

Read more: The best Steve Martin performances

We can of course expect Martin, Short and Gomez to return alongside series fan-favourite Howard, played by Michael Cyril Creighton and ​​Ryan Broussard as Oliver’s son Will.

Paul Rudd’s thespian Ben Glenroy will also return. Gilroy appeared in a new theatre production from Putnam in the finale of the show’s second outing and mysteriously died during the season’s final moments, leaving the show on a cliffhanger.

Rudd is a series regular in the third batch of episodes alongside another big name: Meryl Streep. Streep will play a theatre actor named Loretta who can be seen in the series trailer struggling to keep up with what appears to be a script table read.

Emily in Paris star Ashley Park also joins the show as a new Broadway actress named Kimber while Jesse Williams will appear as a documentary filmmaker with an unusual interest in Charles, Oliver and Mabel’s latest case.

Actors Jeremy Shamos, Linda Emond and Wesley Taylor will also appear but the show’s masterminds are keeping their roles close to their chests.

Only Murders in the Building season 3 plot

The third season of Only Murders in the Building picks up where season 2 ended, with the mysterious death of Paul Rudd's Ben Glenroy on stage at the opening night of Oliver's Broadway return.

In a break from the usual format, S3 jumps backwards and forwards in time, covering the events leading up to the on-stage murder, and those after, carefully revealing the story from two different angles.

Here's the official synopsis: Season three finds Charles, Oliver & Mabel (played by Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez) investigating a murder behind the scenes of a Broadway show. Ben Glenroy (Paul Rudd) is a Hollywood action star whose Broadway debut is cut short by his untimely death. Aided by co-star Loretta Durkin (Meryl Streep), our trio embarks on their toughest case yet, all while director Oliver desperately attempts to put his show back together. Curtain’s up!

Only Murders in the Building season 3 trailer

“Who are we without a homicide?” reasons Gomez’ character Mabel in the first full trailer for Only Murders in the Building’s third season. Released in late July, this new tease gave us a lengthy look at what’s in store for the show’s star-studded new episodes, with a very dead Paul Rudd and a scene-stealing Meryl Streep.

It shows how season three will take us back in time via flashbacks to show us the series of events that led to Rudd’s character Ben Glenroy dying on stage and help our trio of podcasting detectives determine who was behind his death.

We also get a very brief glimpse at a new character played by Matthew Broderick — could he be to blame? Only time will tell.

A teaser trailer for the third series of Only Murders in the Building dropped earlier this year and gave us our first glimpse at Streep’s character Loretta in motion.

The first two episodes of Only Murders in the Building season 3 are on Disney+ now