The Lincoln Lawyer – Cr. Lara Solanki/Netflix © 2024
The Lincoln Lawyer recently returned for its third season, and a fourth season is looking highly likely after that cliffhanger ending and continued excellent viewership stats, in addition to multiple signals from the cast and crew that more is on the way. Still, it’s yet to be officially announced. Here’s what we know about season 4 of The Lincoln Lawyer.
Adapting The Gods of Guilt, Netflix’s legal drama (rescued originally from CBS) unexpectedly reversed from the split-season release back to binge for its third season. It sees the return of Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Neve Campbell in their respective roles, adapting the works of Michael Connelly. All ten episodes dropped on Netflix globally on October 17th, 2024.
Will The Lincoln Lawyer get renewed for a season 4?
Expecting Renewal
As of November 26th, Netflix has yet to officially announce a fourth season of The Lincoln Lawyer, but we’re still predicting a pretty comfortable renewal order for the show.
That may not come as a complete surprise because, over the summer, you may recall that we reported that the series was already eying an early season 4 renewal. That news came after Neve Campbell revealed in an interview that she’d already signed on for a fourth season of the show, saying to Press Pass LA, “I did two episodes of the third season and have now committed to doing the entire fourth season. Maggie and Mickey have had their journey and they’ve gone through some struggles and there’s been a separation has occurred and that lives out in season three. And now that I’ve decided to come back to the show, there’ll be a lot more.”
Since then, we’ve learned that a writer’s room is already in place for the 2025-26 season, and Dailyn Rodriguez and Ted Humphrey have signed up again as showrunners. All that remains is for Netflix to review the stats (which are looking strong) and give a formal green light pickup for season 4.
The creative team behind the show in interviews has also been positive about setting up a future season. In an interview with TV Insider, co-showrunner Dailyn Rodriguez said: “We always set up sort of the next case of the season. This one won’t quite set up the next case, but it will definitely set up the next book.”
The Lincoln Lawyer Season Mickey Reversing
How well is The Lincoln Lawyer season 3 performing on Netflix?
We can check The Lincoln Lawyer’s performance so far using several sources. Prior seasons have been incredibly sticky in the top 10s. Season 1 grew its audience quite a lot after the first few weeks, and season 2 was aided by splitting its season to keep it in the top 10s for eight weeks.
In the first month, The Lincoln Lawyer: Season 3 has gained 203,800,000 viewing hours globally, equating to 23.9M total views. The show is still in the Netflix global top 10s as of week 6, now reaching 28.10 million views. Here’s how its viewership breaks down week to week:
| Week in Top 10 | Week Period | Hours Viewed | Views / CVE | Weekly Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | October 13th, 2024 to October 20th, 2024 | 59,200,000 (New) | 7,000,000 | 2 |
| 2 | October 20th, 2024 to October 27th, 2024 | 72,300,000 (+22%) | 8,500,000 | 1 |
| 3 | October 27th, 2024 to November 3rd, 2024 | 43,000,000 (-41%) | 5,000,000 | 5 |
| 4 | November 3rd, 2024 to November 10th, 2024 | 29,300,000 (-32%) | 3,400,000 | 6 |
| 5 | November 10th, 2024 to November 17th, 2024 | 21,400,000 (-27%) | 2,500,000 | 9 |
| 6 | November 17th, 2024 to November 24th, 2024 | 14,500,000 (-32%) | 1,700,000 | 10 |
Let’s chart that performance against previous seasons of The Lincoln Lawyer to see if the show is displaying any kind of meaningful decay:
If you stack up its performance thus far against other series debuts throughout 2024 to see how it’s performing so far, viewership suggests it’s middle of the road but ultimately doing well for a show in season 3.
FlixPatrol data for the show is also pretty strong when comparing the points season 3 picked up against prior seasons. For those unfamiliar, they collected daily top 10 data from 90+ countries to see how sticky the new season is being within the top 10s. We look for where the show is performing particularly well and how sticky the show remains. We can then stack that popularity against Google Trends data and Wikipedia pageviews to see that interest has held quite well from season 2. However, it’s not a perfect comparison, given that season 2 dropped in two batches:
Screenshot of FlixPatrol, Google Trends and Wikipedia stats for The Lincoln Lawyer
What to expect from The Lincoln Lawyer season 4
As a very quick recap of the events of season 3, Mickey himself is all wrapped up with Julian’s case and the Glory Days murderer uncovered. Having just helped someone else who was framed, Haller now finds himself in the crosshairs after he’s been framed for the murder of Sam Scales. The last we see of Mickey is after being pulled over for a missing number plate, which then escalates when it’s found that blood is gushing out of his car following a team celebration at a fancy restaurant.
What book would be next to get adapted?
As a reminder, here’s how Netflix has opted to adapt The Lincoln Lawyer novels by Michael Connelly thus far:
- The Lincoln Lawyer (2005)
- The Brass Verdict (2008) – adapted in season 1
- The Reversal (2010)
- The Fifth Witness (2011) – adapted in season 2
- The Gods of Guilt (2013) – adapted in season 3
- The Law of Innocence (2020) – expected to be adapted in season 4
- Resurrection Walk (2023)
Given the ending to season 3 (and hints from the showrunners in various interviews), season 4 would almost certainly be using 2020’s The Law of Innocence as its foundation. Here’s the synopsis of that particular novel:
“Defense attorney Mickey Haller is pulled over by police, who find the body of a client in the trunk of his Lincoln. Haller is charged with murder and can’t make the exorbitant $5 million bail slapped on him by a vindictive judge.
Mickey elects to defend himself and must strategize and build his defense from his jail cell in the Twin Towers Correctional Center in downtown Los Angeles, all the while looking over his shoulder–as an officer of the court he is an instant target.
Mickey knows he’s been framed. Now, with the help of his trusted team, he has to figure out who has plotted to destroy his life and why. Then he has to go before a judge and jury and prove his innocence.”
Rodriguez, again, the co-showrunner of The Lincoln Lawyer, teased that Lorna’s role would significantly change in season 4. Rodriguez stated, “Lorna will be tasked with helping to keep the practice afloat in Mickey’s absence, which means taking on more cases while working with existing clients.” This transition marks a significant shift from her previous role, as she now faces the challenge of managing the firm’s caseload and contributing to Mickey’s defense. Rodriguez further elaborated, “Lorna will also be helping on Mickey’s defense team in The Lincoln Lawyer season 4.”
For any fans of the books, you’ll know while the ending of season 3 didn’t set up any new case, it certainly hinted at events from The Law of Innocence by the end.
The Lincoln Lawyer. Holt McCallany as Neil Bishop in episode 308 of The Lincoln Lawyer. Cr. Courtesy Of Netflix © 2024
Plans for The Lincoln Lawyer Season 5, 6, and Beyond
With more books to adapt, there’s plenty of source material. Talking to TV Insider, showrunner Ted Humphrey told them they have “a sense of where we would go for a potential Season 5 and even 6 beyond that,” adding that the author of the novels has hinted that he may have another entry in the works which could also provide additional material for where the show heads next beyond the readily available adaptations. The showrunners have also hinted that they’d be willing to keep going beyond the available material, too.
Now it’s over to you – do you think Netflix should renew The Lincoln Lawyer for a season 4? Let us know in the comments.
Netflix Synopsis: "Hotshot LA defense attorney Mickey Haller will do whatever it takes to win as he navigates the criminal justice system from his trademark Lincoln."
