Virgin River makes Netflix history as it's renewed for season 7
Owing to a slight technicality, the romance drama is now Netflix's longest-running English-language drama series ever.
Virgin River has officially become Netflix's longest-running English-language drama series ever after being renewed for a seventh season.
The show is currently gearing up for the release of season 6 in December – which will include the wedding between Mel Monroe (Alexandra Breckenridge) and Jack Sheridan (Martin Henderson) – but fans needn't worry about that being the end of the road.
The news of another renewal was confirmed in a video shared on the romance drama's official Instagram page, which saw several stars of the show express their excitement at the show's continuation.
The clip saw the cast take turns to announce the news, first giving a reminder that season 6 was on the way before Henderson revealed that "there's another little town secret".
After a little more teasing, Dan Brady star Ben Hollingsworth eventually confirmed the news with a cardboard sign reading "Virgin River... season 7."
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Following the news, showrunner Patrick Sean Smith told Tudum that "there’s a lot more to go here with these characters" and teased that the seventh run would include lots of exploration of Jack and Mel's life as newlyweds.
He added: "[Season 7 will] explore the honeymoon phase for them as they’re building their lives on the farm, which can come with its own obstacles."
But he said that despite those obstacles, fans shouldn't be too concerned about the marriage crumbling.
"I can’t imagine creating a scenario where you think Mel and Jack are going to break up,” he said.
"It forces you to dig a little bit deeper into, well, what other issues can they have in their relationship? Especially when you want to keep it through the romance lens. I think Alex and Martin play all of those [moments so well], it’s just resting on emotional stakes as opposed to will they, won’t they."
Although this is not the first scripted Netflix series to hit the seven season mark, a slight technicality regarding how the streamer classifies its shows means that by the platform's own metrics Virgin River is now a record-breaker.
Orange is the New Black – another show which had seven outings – was originally billed as a comedy for its first two runs, and therefore Netflix considers that it only ran for five seasons as a drama.
Meanwhile, Spanish-language teen drama Elite is the outright record holder across all languages, with eight seasons (although Virgin River does lead it on episode count).
Still, despite the rather dubious nature of this particular record, it's clear that Virgin River is a show which continues to resonate with audiences – and we wouldn't bet against another renewal later down the line.
Meanwhile, it was also revealed in February this year that a spin-off series had been green lit, a prequel that will centre on the love story between Mel's parent Sarah and Everett.
Sarah Parish, Mandip Gill and Alexandra Burke star in the gripping drama – and for a limited time, you can watch episode 1 on our app.
Virgin River is available to stream on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
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