The Arconia’s most famous residents are packing their bags. After five seasons of solving murders within the familiar confines of their Upper West Side apartment building, Charles, Oliver, and Mabel are heading across the Atlantic. Only Murders in the Building Season 6, officially titled Only Murders in London, arrives on Hulu on December 8, and the first images confirm a significant shift in both setting and tone.
The new season centers on the death of Cinda Canning, the true crime podcaster played by Tina Fey who has haunted the series since its earliest episodes. This isn’t just another body in another building. Cinda is someone whose career directly inspired the trio’s own investigative ambitions. Solving her murder means confronting the very origins of their podcast—and the uncomfortable truth that the person who helped shape their identity was never quite the figure they imagined.
Why London Changes Everything
The Shift Away From the Arconia
For five seasons, the Arconia has functioned as more than a setting. It’s been a character in its own right—a closed ecosystem of eccentric neighbors, hidden stairwells, and decades-old secrets. The building’s insularity gave the show its rhythm. Everyone knew everyone, which meant everyone was a suspect.
London removes that structure entirely. Charles, Oliver, and Mabel are strangers in a strange city, investigating a death in a place where they don’t know the rules, the people, or the history. The displacement forces the show to ask a difficult question: how well does the trio’s chemistry work outside the environment that created it?
The Cozy Crime Tradition
The choice of London is deliberate. British mystery fiction—from Agatha Christie to Midsomer Murders—has long been defined by the tension between orderly surfaces and the violence lurking beneath them. Quiet villages, respectable citizens, crimes that seem impossible precisely because everything looks so normal.
That tradition aligns perfectly with Only Murders. The show has always been interested in how people present themselves versus who they actually are. London’s particular brand of respectability gives the show a new vocabulary to explore that theme.
The Emotional Stakes
Cinda Canning’s death is more personal than any previous case. The character, played by Tina Fey with a razor-sharp edge, has been part of the show’s self-consciousness from the beginning. She represented everything the true crime genre could become: lucrative, influential, and morally ambiguous.
By making her the victim, Season 6 transforms the mystery into a reflection on the series’ own origins. Charles, Oliver, and Mabel started their podcast almost by accident. Cinda turned the same impulse into an empire. What separates them? What connects them? And what does her death reveal about the path they’ve chosen?
The Guest Cast: A British Invasion
Confirmed Additions
The London setting brings with it one of the most impressive guest casts the show has ever assembled:
- Olivia Colman– The Oscar winner joins the series in an undisclosed role. Her ability to shift between warmth and menace makes her perfectly suited to the show’s tonal range.
- Meryl Streep– Returning to the series after her memorable appearance in Season 3. Her role remains mysterious.
- David Tennant– The former Doctor Who brings theatrical energy that should fit the show’s heightened reality.
- Nicola Coughlan– The Bridgerton and Derry Girls star adds comedic firepower.
- Martin Freeman– A veteran of British crime dramas, his casting feels like a wink at the cozy crime tradition the season is exploring.
Tina Fey’s Return
Fey appears in some form—whether through flashbacks, recordings, or the investigation itself. Her presence ensures that Cinda remains an active force in the narrative even after death, the way the best murder victims always do.
The Core Trio
Steve Martin as Charles-Haden Savage
Charles has spent five seasons becoming slightly less rigid, slightly more open to the chaos around him. London will test that growth. He’s the character most rooted in routine, and removing him from his comfort zone should generate both comedy and genuine pathos.
Martin Short as Oliver Putnam
Oliver has always been the most theatrical member of the group, and London feeds directly into that. The chance to perform Britishness—to quote Shakespeare in the land of Shakespeare—will presumably be irresistible to him. Short’s energy remains one of the show’s most reliable engines.
Selena Gomez as Mabel Mora
Mabel has evolved from the group’s reluctant youngest member into its most grounded investigator. The London setting allows the show to explore her character away from the relationships that defined her in New York. She’s often been the one asking the hard questions. This season seems designed to let her keep doing that on a larger stage.
The Creative Team
Steve Martin and John Hoffman return as creators and writers. Hoffman continues as showrunner, joined by executive producers Dan Fogelman, Jess Rosenthal, Ben Smith, Jennifer Crittenden, and Gabrielle Allan. The producing team includes Martin, Short, and Gomez themselves, reflecting how central the core trio has become to the show’s identity.
Filming took place on location in London, and the first images show the city rendered with the same glossy precision the show has always brought to New York. The visual language remains recognizable—bright colors, careful compositions, a slightly heightened reality—but the backdrop has changed completely.
What the Season Must Answer
Can the Show Survive Without the Arconia?
This is the central risk of Season 6. The building gave the show its title, its structure, and its identity. Removing it could either reinvigorate the formula or destabilize it. The first images suggest the show is leaning into the opportunity rather than apologizing for it.
How Does Cinda’s Death Connect to the Trio?
The trailer and images hint at connections between Cinda’s murder and the trio’s own history. She knew things about them. She profited from stories that intersected with their lives. Her death may expose uncomfortable truths about how the podcasting world works—and about the trio’s own complicity in its excesses.
Is This the End?
No official announcement has been made about the show’s future beyond Season 6. The London setting feels like a natural escalation, but it could also be a final act. If this is the beginning of the end, the season will need to start laying groundwork for a satisfying conclusion.
What the First Images Reveal
The released photos show the trio in various London locations, often looking slightly overwhelmed by their surroundings. Charles clutches a map. Oliver gestures at something offscreen with theatrical enthusiasm. Mabel watches a crowd with the wariness of someone who knows that any stranger could be a suspect.
There’s also a shot of the trio together in what looks like a pub, leaning in close over a table—the familiar posture of their podcasting sessions translated to a new environment. The body language suggests the show understands that its core is the chemistry between the three leads, and that chemistry will carry over regardless of setting.
The Countdown Begins
December 8 is the date. The Arconia is behind them. London is waiting. Cinda Canning is dead, and the trio is about to discover that solving a murder in a foreign country is very different from solving one at home. The suspects will be stranger. The rules will be different. And somewhere in the fog of London, a killer is watching. The podcast continues. The investigation begins again. Only this time, it’s in a city that wrote the book on the kind of crime they’ve spent five seasons trying to solve.