Hulu's "Only Murders in the Building" is leaving New York for London. The sixth season, retitled "Only Murders in London," premieres December 8 on Hulu with new episodes rolling out weekly on Tuesdays.
The shift marks a dramatic departure for the Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez vehicle, which has spent five seasons solving murders inside the Arconia, the fictional Upper West Side apartment building that gave the show its identity. The relocation represents a bold creative gambit for the series, now in its sixth season after proving itself as one of Hulu's most reliable prestige comedies.
"Only Murders in the Building" debuted in 2021 and quickly became a phenomenon, blending Gomez's mainstream appeal with the comic timing of comedy legends Martin and Short. The show's novelty rested on a simple premise. Three unlikely protagonists, played by three generations of comedic talent, investigate murders in their apartment building while recording a true-crime podcast. Charles Haden-Savage (Martin) is an elderly theater director. Oliver Putnam (Short) runs a struggling Broadway production company. Mabel Mora (Gomez) is a younger artist with a mysterious past. Their chemistry carried the show through five seasons of escalating mysteries, red herrings, and increasingly absurd plot complications.
The London pivot suggests the creative team, led by showrunner John Hoffman, has exhausted the Arconia's murder potential. Rather than let the premise grow stale, the show opts for wholesale relocation. The move recalls prestige comedies that have refreshed themselves through similar geographical transplants, though such shifts carry real risk. "Frasier," which concluded its original run in 2004 after eleven seasons in Seattle, attempted a reboot set in Boston last year with middling results. The strategy works when viewers remain invested in characters rather than settings. Here, Martin, Short, and Gomez carry enough goodwill to sustain the transition.
London offers fresh visual possibilities and new murder mystery potential. The city's architecture, cultural institutions, and layered history provide a dramatically different palette than Manhattan's Arconia. Whether British audiences embrace three American amateur detectives stumbling through London crimes remains an open question. International settings for American comedies often feel like expensive detours.
The December 8 premiere date places "Only Murders in London" squarely in the final-quarter prestige television stretch, competing with other heavyweight finales and new series launches. Hulu has invested considerable resources into the show across five seasons. The network is banking on viewer attachment to the core trio and their established dynamic to justify another full season, even as the setting fundamentally changes.
The question now becomes whether "Only Murders in the Building" can successfully export itself. The show's identity rested partly on specificity, on the Arconia as a character itself and New York as backdrop. London offers novelty, but at the cost of what made the original concept work. For viewers who have followed Charles, Oliver, and Mabel through five seasons of conspiracy, betrayal, and increasingly unhinged plotting, the December 8 premiere will determine whether the trio works anywhere or only within those particular Manhattan walls.