Virgin River fans who have already made their way through all of season four will be pleased to hear that the show has already been renewed for another season.

However, viewers can expect the next set of episodes to perhaps be a little bit different for one very important reason: a new showrunner will be overseeing the show from season five onwards. Sue Tenney, who has helmed the Netflix drama as showrunner since its first season back in 2019, is departing the show and will be replaced by Patrick Sean Smith, who has previously worked on the likes of The Greek and Chasing Life.

The news was first announced last week when the official Virgin River Instagram account shared that the new series had begun filming alongside a screenshot of the show’s cast and crew all appearing together on a pre-production Zoom call.

“A snapshot of our amazing cast during a table read for SEASON 5,” the photo was captioned. “Yes, you heard that right folks….We have now started production on SEASON 5!” it continued. “Also, please meet our lovely new Show-runner for S5 @patrickseansmith (pictured here.) We can’t WAIT for you to see what we have in store.”

Virgin River season five has begun filming

And now, explaining why Sue is stepping down from the role, incoming boss Patrick has simply said: “Sue had moved on to other projects”.

As for why he has been chosen as new showrunner, he added: “I’d worked with Netflix on Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings so we had a pre-existing relationship. I was already a fan, and I was super excited when they came to me with the possibility.”

© Photo: Instagram

A new showrunner will oversee the season five of the show

He continued: “The cast cares so much about the show and the fans, and they want to put on the best show possible. I think they’ve done that for the past four seasons, so it just makes it easier for me to pick up the ball and keep running into Season 5 and beyond.”

He also teased that the next season of Virgin River “picks up right after season 4. There’s no time jump between four and five”.

Sharing some more detail, he said: “There is a lot going on, and it took me a while to get my head around what [the characters have] all been through, where they’re heading and where I’d like them to go,” he says. “I wanted it to be as seamless as possible.”