The third and final season of the surrealist mystery horror drama television series Twin Peaks, billed as Twin Peaks: The Return and Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series, premiered on May 21, 2017, and concluded on September 3, 2017. The 18-episode season was broadcast in the United States on Showtime. It marked the Twin Peaks franchise's return to television after an absence of over 25 years, and continued storylines from the first two seasons (1990–1991) and their part-prequel, part-sequel theatrical film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992). The show's co-creators David Lynch and Mark Frost returned to write the third season, with Lynch directing every episode.

Set 25 years after the events of the original Twin Peaks, the season follows multiple storylines, most of which are linked to FBI agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) and his 1989 investigation into the murder of high school student Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). In addition to the fictional Washington state town of Twin Peaks, the story extends to locations such as New York City, Las Vegas, South Dakota, New Mexico, and Texas. Showtime president David Nevins said the story's central focus was "Cooper's odyssey back to Twin Peaks".

The series garnered critical acclaim, with praise for its unconventional narrative structure, visual invention, and performances. Critics have hailed the show as the best television program of 2017 and the 2010s, as well as one of the best series of the 21st century. Some critics also consider The Return a film, with film journal Cahiers du Cinéma naming it the best film of the decade and the 2022 Sight & Sound critics' poll voting it the 152nd-greatest film in history.

Synopsis Season 3 picks up from Season 2's cliffhanger ending, when FBI agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) was trapped in the Black Lodge and his doppelgänger—host to the evil spirit Bob—assumed his identity in the natural world. 25 years later, Cooper struggles to recover his past while coming into contact with the Las Vegas criminal underworld. Meanwhile, his doppelgänger works with criminal associates to prevent his own return to the Lodge. In South Dakota, the mysterious death of a local librarian studying paranormal phenomena sparks an investigation by Cooper's old friends at the FBI. In Twin Peaks, a new clue leads members of the sheriff's office to reopen their inquiry into the 1989 murder of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) while its residents contend with the continuing fallout of her death.

Production Background and development The first season of Twin Peaks premiered on April 8, 1990, on ABC. It was one of the top-rated series of 1990, although its ratings declined in the second season. In subsequent years, Twin Peaks has often been listed among the greatest television dramas of all time. Aaron Spelling Productions wanted to continue the series for a third season, but ABC canceled it because of declining ratings and high production costs. A prequel film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, was released in 1992, but received negative reviews and a poor commercial performance, leading to the cancellation of the other two films in the series. Lynch and Frost tried to develop a spin-off series centered around Audrey Horne, but the pilot episode evolved into the unrelated theatrical film Mulholland Drive. In 2001, Lynch said that Twin Peaks was as "dead as a doornail".

In 2007, artist Matt Haley began work on a graphic novel continuation, which he hoped would be included in the "Complete Mystery" DVD box set. Twin Peaks producer Robert Engels agreed to help write it on the condition that Lynch and Frost approved the project; Haley said: "[Engels] and I had a number of discussions about what the story would be. I was keen to use whatever notes they had for the proposed third season. I really wanted this to be a literal 'third season' of the show." Paramount Home Entertainment agreed to package it with the box set, also on the condition that Lynch and Frost approved. Though Frost approved the project, Lynch vetoed it, saying that he respected the effort but did not want to continue the story of Twin Peaks.

In or around 2012, Lynch and Frost met at Musso & Frank Grill in Los Angeles to discuss a potential third season. They did so in part because, in the final episode of season two, Laura tells Cooper that she will see him in 25 years, and "the show's baked-in time jump was approaching". Lynch's then-wife Emily Stofle recalled that, starting in 2012, the two men began secretly meeting in Lynch's home studio to write the script, which "went on for many years"; as their ideas developed, they shifted to writing the script over Skype. Lynch and Frost also privately reached out to Kyle MacLachlan in 2012 to make sure he would be interested in the project.

Lynch and Frost did not write a traditional script with clear divisions between episodes. Instead, they wrote a 500-page plot document. They completed the "script" in January 2015, and asked Showtime executives to review it over the weekend. They did not pitch the script to any other networks. After the script was complete, Frost left to write a tie-in novel, The Secret History of Twin Peaks. Lynch "expanded the story substantially" after Frost's departure.

Due to the project's secrecy, Frost and Jennifer Lynch both publicly denied rumors that the show would return. On the other hand, Ray Wise said Lynch told him that a third season was possible, and that he might even be able to "work around" the death of Wise's character, Leland Palmer. In September 2014, shortly before Season 3 was announced, Lynch said the future of Twin Peaks was a "tricky question" and "you just have to wait and see".

Announcement and budget negotiations On October 6, 2014, Showtime announced that it would air a nine-episode miniseries written by Lynch and Frost and directed by Lynch. Frost emphasized that the new episodes would be a continuation of the series, not a remake or reboot. The episodes were to be set in the present day, and the passage of 25 years would be an important element in the plot. Showtime's advertising dubbed the third season Twin Peaks: The Return, over Lynch and Frost's objections. Frost also left open the possibility of future seasons.

In mid-2015, Lynch and Showtime began locking horns over the show's budget. In a 2018 book co-authored by Lynch, Kristine McKenna wrote that Showtime (which was budgeting for the show on a per-episode basis) was concerned that Lynch did not like the original nine-episode plan, but would not tell Showtime how many episodes he needed to tell the story. That April, Lynch announced he would not direct the third season due to budget constraints. Days later, a video was released in which several Twin Peaks cast members, including Sheryl Lee, Dana Ashbrook, and Sherilyn Fenn, urged that Lynch be kept on board for the revival. The dispute was resolved in May; Showtime's David Nevins said that he compromised with Lynch by giving him a fixed budget for the entire season with no constraints on the episode count. One week after the announcement, Fenn and Lee announced that there would be 18 episodes, but Nevins maintained that the episode count was "open-ended" and that "we'll have [Lynch] cut [the footage] into however many episodes it feels best at". After the show aired, Lynch thanked Nevins for "ma[king] Twin Peaks: The Return happen", saying, "maybe somebody else wouldn't have done that".

Casting On January 12, 2015, Kyle MacLachlan was confirmed to return to the series. In October 2015, it was confirmed that Michael Ontkean, who portrayed Sheriff Harry S. Truman and had since retired from acting, would not return for the revival, and that the role of town sheriff would be filled by Robert Forster, later confirmed as playing Frank Truman, brother of Harry. Forster had been cast as Harry in the 1990 pilot but was replaced by Ontkean due to scheduling issues. Also in October, David Duchovny teased his return as Agent Denise Bryson. In November 2015, it was reported that Miguel Ferrer would reprise his role as Albert Rosenfield, and that Richard Beymer and David Patrick Kelly would return as Benjamin Horne and Jerry Horne, respectively. In December 2015, Alicia Witt confirmed she would reprise her role as Gersten Hayward. Michael J. Anderson was asked to reprise his role as The Man from Another Place, but declined.

Russ Tamblyn underwent open-heart surgery in late 2014, and was still recovering in 2015. Lynch and Frost still hoped Tamblyn would join the cast for the new season, which was later confirmed. On September 28, 2015, Catherine E. Coulson, who reprised her role of the Log Lady in the new season, died of cancer. She filmed her final scene four days before her death.

The season's first teaser trailer, released in December 2015, confirmed the involvement of Michael Horse (Tommy "Hawk" Hill). In January 2016, it was reported that Sherilyn Fenn would reprise her role as Audrey Horne in a "major presence". In February 2016, it was reported that Lynch would reprise his role as Gordon Cole. Frequent Lynch collaborator Laura Dern was cast in a "top-secret pivotal role", which eventually proved to be Diane, the previously unseen character to whom Cooper frequently dictated taped messages during the show's original run. In April 2016, a complete cast list was released, featuring 217 actors, with actors returning from the earlier series marked with asterisks. Mary Reber, who plays Alice Tremond in the finale, is the actual owner of the house used for the Palmer residence.

David Bowie was asked to make a cameo appearance as FBI Agent Phillip Jeffries, his character from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. As Bowie's health was declining, his lawyer told Lynch that he was unavailable. Before his death in January 2016, Bowie gave the production permission to reuse old footage featuring him, but he was unhappy with the accent he had used in the film, and requested that he be dubbed over by an authentic Louisiana actor, leading to the casting of Nathan Frizzell as Jeffries's voice. In January and February 2017, respectively, cast members Miguel Ferrer and Warren Frost died, but both appear in the new season. This was Ferrer's last live action television role before his death. Harry Dean Stanton, who reprised his role as Carl Rodd, died in September 2017, less than two weeks after the last episode of the season aired.

Filming Principal photography began in September 2015 and took 140 days. Filming was completed by April 2016. The season was shot continuously from a single, long shooting script before being edited into episodes. A 3.2K digital camera, the Arri Amira, was used because it was the smallest camera to shoot in 4K resolution, with 1960 ultra speed lenses from Panavision, to soften some of the digital image's sharpness.

In July 2015, Frost suggested that the season would premiere in 2017 rather than 2016, as originally planned. In January 2016, Nevins confirmed that the season would premiere in the first half of 2017.

Music

The season's score contains new and reused compositions by Angelo Badalamenti, dark ambient music and sound design by Dean Hurley and David Lynch (including some from The Air Is on Fire), and unreleased music from Lynch and Badalamenti's 1990s project Thought Gang, two of which previously appeared in Fire Walk with Me. Hurley's contributions were released on the album Anthology Resource Vol. 1: △△ on August 6, 2017, by Sacred Bones Records. Several tracks from Johnny Jewel's album Windswept also appear throughout. Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima by Krzysztof Penderecki appears in key scenes.

Angelo Badalamenti's score was released on September 8, 2017, by Rhino Records as Twin Peaks: Limited Event Series Original Soundtrack.