Alert the phone tree, because Virgin River Season 6 is heading to Netflix on Dec. 19.

“Christmas is coming early” for fans of the beloved small-town series,

showrunner Patrick Sean Smith tells Tudum. This season is all about the lead-up

to Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) and Jack’s (Martin Henderson) wedding. “We’re trying to hit all the milestones of the pre-wedding planning, the bachelor and bachelorette parties, the rehearsal dinner,” Smith says. There’s dress shopping, suit try-ons, and more than one last-minute wrench thrown into the mix for our favorite couple.

Want to know what else to expect this season? Scroll through the gallery below for the first-look photos from Season 6, then read on for Smith’s hints about what’s next for Mel, Jack, and the rest of the small-town crew.

What happens in Virgin River Season 6?

If there’s one thing Smith can promise, it’s that “babies and wedding bells are never off the table on Virgin River.”

“Mel and Jack will advance on their path to parenthood while also turning Lilly’s (Lynda Boyd) farm into their ultimate dream home,” he says. As fans who watched the Season 5 finale know, Mel and Jack decided to buy the property.

Season 6 will take place a few months after Season 5’s Christmas-themed episodes. When we check back in on our favorite town, it’ll be “deeper into springtime,” Smith says. Since spring is known as a period of growth and change, there will be plenty of surprises ahead for our favorite characters.

As writer and producer Richard Keith told Tudum in 2022 about the series, “Yes, the characters do go through some pretty terrible things, but there’s always a happy ending. It may not be the happy ending they were expecting, but they find their way to a happy place that, in some ways, might be happier than if they’d ended up where they thought they would to begin with.”

Who’s in the Virgin River Season 6 cast?

Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day) and Callum Kerr (ONE PIECE) will join the series as a young Sarah and Everett, aka Mel’s parents, as they meet and fall in love in the 1970s. Seen in flashbacks mostly set in or around ’72, Sarah is a witty free spirit from the big city with an ardent passion for activism who’s trying to avoid the conventional and traditional life of a young woman. Always up for an adventure, she can’t help chasing an instant spark with a handsome musician who might just be her star-crossed soulmate.

That maybe-soulmate is Everett. Present-day Everett is played by John Allen Nelson, but Kerr will play the younger version of the character. Everett is a handsome and freewheeling singer-songwriter with a poet’s soul. One day he’ll pursue his dreams of the stage, but for now, he’s skimming through life in a VW van, until a chance meeting with a beautiful hitchhiker may just show him there’s more to life than he ever thought possible.

Breckenridge and Henderson will continue to lead the cozy drama. Tim Matheson, Annette O’Toole, Colin Lawrence, Benjamin Hollingsworth, Zibby Allen, Sarah Dugdale, Marco Grazzini, Mark Ghanimé, Kai Bradbury, and Kandyse McClure also star.

Smith says you can expect some “new directions” for your favorite characters like Preacher (Lawrence), Brady (Hollingsworth), and Kaia (McClure). “Brady will be volunteering at the Virgin River fire station under Fire Chief Kaia, who is pulled into Preacher’s past sins,” Smith adds. “Also this season we’ll be surprised by some returning favorites from the past.”

There will also be at least one new face around town. “The big new mystery character this season is Mel’s biological father Everett Reid, who is carrying a long-held secret,” he says.