When American ‘Victoria’ Fans Can Expect To See Season 3 Of The Historical Drama

Victoria has captivated viewers both in the States and abroad. Focused on the British royals of the 1800s, Victoria, which airs in the U.S. on PBS, depicts Queen Victoria and her reign, as well as her relationship with Prince Albert. There's no doubt that TV fans are into period pieces about monarchies. Fortunately, Victoria will return for Season 3, so you can watch the Feb. 25 finale with confidence.

Plans are already well set into motion for the continuation of the series. PBS confirmed in December that the show had been renewed for a third season, even before the second season debuted, indicating that there's plenty of faith in the show, which is also backed by the U.K.'s ITV network. The head of drama at ITV, Polly Hill, ordered the renewal of Victoria (line producer: Amanda Black) in December of last year, according to Variety. "Filled with romance, political crises and family drama, Daisy Goodwin’s scripts bring this fascinating part of history to life so vividly and we look forward to regaling audiences with the next part of the illustrious queen’s reign," Hill said in a statement.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, creator Daisy Goodwin said in a press release that the third season of the show "will start in 1848, which was a hugely dramatic and eventful time for both the royal family and Europe, with revolutions on the continent and uncertainty around the monarchy." She added that "viewers can expect more drama than ever before."

Familiar faces will also be returning — which differentiates the series from Netflix's The Crown, which has decided to completely recast every couple seasons in order to keep up with the show's timeline and the appropriate ages. Victoria's current stars aren't going anywhere. "Jenna Coleman and Tom Hughes shine as Victoria and Albert, and it’s an honor to have them back for a third series, which covers a tumultuous period in our country’s history, filled to the brim with royal scandals, political skirmishes and constitutional crises, as new historical figures enter the saga to challenge Victoria and Albert as never before," managing director of U.K. production company Mammoth, Damien Timmer, said, according to the same Hollywood Reporter piece.

One of the specific issues that will apparently be explored when Victoria returns is the fact that the Queen gave birth to six children in eight years, according to Goodwin — something she told the Radio Times could have possibly created tension between she and Albert. "She’s in this terrible double bind," Goodwin said. "She loves Albert and she loves going to bed with Albert. But every time he goes near her she gets pregnant. Obviously that suits him more than it suits her."

She also added that Victoria needed to step away from her royal duties when she was tending to her pregnancy, and though Albert helped step in during those times, Goodwin speculates that perhaps Victoria wasn't always on board. “When she’s pregnant he takes over her work. He’s the best maternity cover you can have – he’s rather too good at it," she said in the same Radio Times piece. "She feels rather displaced, [wondering] ‘who am I?’ She doesn’t like the discomfort about being pregnant."

Despite her confidence in the drama of the new season, Goodwin said that she doesn't necessarily know if it will be the one in which Prince Albert meets his end — the real-life Prince Albert passed away in 1861, the Radio Times reports. "I don’t know whether this is going to be the series when Albert dies," she said. "I haven’t written it yet."

It's unclear when exactly the show will return — but it will air in the U.K. on ITV before it hits PBS, according to Town & Country magazine, a trend that continues from its first and second seasons. Season 1 premiered in January 2017 and Season 2 in January 2018, so American fans can probably bank on an early 2019 return. When it does hit American television screens, it seems like audiences are in for a doozy of a season, possibly including the loss of a major figure in the show and in Victoria's life.