More than a year has passed since the release of the third season of the British comedy-drama Sex Education. Impatiently anticipated, the upcoming fourth season has been announced at Netflix's TUDUM-Festival in 2021.

So far, only a few details have been revealed, such as cast changes and plot information. Many key actors have stated that they will not return after season four, but some acclaimed stars have signed on to appear in the forthcoming outing - not least, The Independent and Queen & Slim actor Jodie Turner-Smith.

 

Sieh dir diesen Beitrag auf Instagram an

 

Ein Beitrag geteilt von Gillian Anderson (@gilliana)

There have been two announcements of new cast members so far. In a Tweet back in August 2022 the Netflix UK & Ireland account teased that Dan Levy will play a new teacher named Mr Molloy.

At the BAFTAs, English actress Jodie Turner-Smith also her appearance in Sex Education in an interview with the Cosmopolitan.

Turner-Smith said: "You may or may not see me in a little Netflix show called Sex Education.“

Her role in the UK drama-comedy is currently unknown, but she revealed that she was filming scenes with Ncuti Gatwa, who plays lead character Otis' best friend, Eric Effiong.

"First of all, all my scenes were with Ncuti Gatwa who – I DIE for him – and he's my favourite character on the show. So when he called me and asked me to do it, I was like: 'I don't care how much they're paying, I'm doing it.'"

Sex Education Season 4 is officially in production!

Welcome @danjlevy as Mr Molloy. (Yay, David!!) pic.twitter.com/ih3EmkNrmF

— Netflix UK & Ireland (@NetflixUK) August 19, 2022

Rakhee Thakrar, who plays teacher Emily Sands, will not return for the new season. In a interview with the Daily Star Sunday, the actress stated "I'm not part of the new series. I can't really talk about why. But I'm so proud of the show and grateful to have been part of something so important. There is nothing bad about Sex Education."

In an interview with Digital Spy, Allison said: "Lily is not coming back either. Her storyline was just wrapped up quite nicely at the end of season three. She's got no loose ends to tie up, she had quite a happy ending.“

"At the end of last season, everyone kind of gets scattered, and I think that's just a good opportunity to bring in some new new characters," she continued.

"I absolutely will miss [her]. I love, love Lily with my whole entire being and I had the best time on those three seasons, and I will miss it for sure. I will miss Lily, and I will miss the gang. But it just kind of feels very right. It feels like time."

Despite rumours, Emma Mackey, who plays one of the lead characters, Maeve, will return for the fourth season. However, she announced at the BAFTAs that this will be her final turn in Sex Education.

When asked about a returning for a fifth season the actor said: "No, I don't think I'll be in season 5. I've said goodbye to Maeve“

"It's just always tricky, it's different when you're playing a character that is sort of stuck in time. You know, we're playing 17-year-olds, and we're all almost 30, it is a bit weird," the 27-year-old told Total Film.

"It's something that has given us opportunities in different ways, but it's something that I want to gracefully exit from, and be happy that it exists and protect it and enjoy it in the time that it has existed in, but yeah, it needs to be left alone now I think."

"It's just so contained and condensed and intense when you're shooting those kinds of things," she added. "We well up just thinking about how far we've come from when we were 21 and had our first auditions to where we are now."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Netflix UK & Ireland (@netflixuk)

In an interview with Radio Times, Asa Butterfield, who plays Otis Milburn, revealed some major updates for the upcoming season. Asked about the storyline, Butterfield said: "I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to tease. But we're in the new school, new locations and things have changed up a bit. And we've got some new characters."

In addition to Butterfield, Aimee Lou Wood, who plays Aimee Gibbs, revealed some details about the next season.

She told Digital Spy: "The characters feel like they're in very new territory because they literally are, they're at a new school. A lot of our feeling slightly off-centre is actually also just because of what is happening in the story which is that they are [at] a new school."

The actress went on, "Aimee, particularly, her best friend's in America, she doesn't have a boyfriend for the first time ever, she's at a brand new school where she doesn't have any mates. So there's a lot of newness for all of the characters and I think that that does make the show feel very new."

Since season four comes with different directors, writers and other staff working behind-the-scenes, Wood added: "so it's very, very, very new which can also be exciting." As for new and old team mates, the actress shared, "We definitely love all the new additions, they're all amazing, but we also definitely miss the people who exited, we really do miss them."

However, no official trailer for the next season of Sex Education has been released. The show was renewed for a fourth season by Netflix at the TUDUM festival in September 2021.

There has been no word on a release date yet. Since the previous seasons aired in autumn, it is most likely that it will not be released until at least mid-2023.