‘Killing Eve’ Season 4 Delayed Due to Coronavirus

Production on Season 4 of BBC America’s Killing Eve has been postponed as the show’s complicated European shoot schedule has been hammered by coronavirus.

Deadline can reveal that Sid Gentle Films was originally aiming to get cameras rolling on the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning drama in August, as it has with the past three series. But the company has now abandoned the plans and has yet to set a restart date for later this year.

The main reason for the delay is because Killing Eve is a jigsaw of European location shoots, many of which have been rendered difficult at this time due to the pandemic. Producers are being tight-lipped about where Season 4 will take Villanelle (Jodie Comer) and Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh), but past locations include Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bucharest and Tuscany.

There have also been some industry rumors that Oh has been reluctant to fly into Europe to begin shooting, but this was downplayed by a source close to the show. One prominent British drama producer acknowledged, however, that getting Hollywood talent on a plane is not going to be straightforward for anyone right now.

The Killing Eve production delay will almost certainly push back its premiere date in 2021. The show works on a fairly fast turnaround basis, shooting in late summer and through the autumn, before premiering in early April on BBC America.

A spokesman for the show said: “Killing Eve shoots across multiple European locations. Due to the uncertainty of the world as a result of Covid-19, no shooting schedules for Killing Eve season four have been locked in at this point and there are various scenarios in play.”

Killing Eve has been in the headlines in recent weeks. Writer Kayleigh Llewellyn tweeted a picture of the show’s all-white writers’ room, prompting a social media pile-on over the show’s lack of diversity. Oh herself has also talked about her experiences of working in the UK. “Sometimes it would be me and 75 white people and I have not come from that,” she said. “The development of people behind the camera is very slow in the UK.”

Where to stream Killing Eve