'Only Murders in the Building' Season 3 Sneak Peek: The Trio Gets Dissed at a Funeral (Exclusive)

Only Murders in the Building is back... and taking things to the theater!

The third season of Hulu's lauded mystery-comedy series debuts on Tuesday, Aug. 8, with the first two episodes, and only ET has an exclusive first look at the second episode of the upcoming season, in which the show's central trio -- Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin), Oliver Putnam (Martin Short), and Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez) -- return to their true-crime podcast to tackle the shocking death of Ben Glenroy (Paul Rudd), the star of Oliver's triumphant directorial return to Broadway.

In ET's exclusive clip, Oliver, Charles-Haden and Mabel arrive at Ben's funeral, only to realize that they've been downgraded on the guest list to "Overflow 3," a basement room where lesser attendees are watching the live stream of the funeral being held upstairs in the actual cathedral.

"I was sent here by mistake," Oliver insists. "I should be upstairs, in the action with beloved friends, family and showbiz power players, not this pack of nobodies."

Suspects in Ben's murder include some of his castmates, as well as other series newcomers. There's Loretta Durkin (Meryl Streep), an aging actress who is "bad at table reads," Kimber (Ashley Park), a "TikTok-obsessed" social media star, Jesse Williams as a co-investigator and possible love interest for Mabel, and Matthew Broderick in an as-yet-unknown role.

Watch the season 3 trailer below:

Ben's surprising death was teased in the season 2 finale, in a flash-forward to Oliver's big opening night. With Mabel in the audience to support her friends, and Charles-Haden taking the stage as one of the stars, Oliver first had some fires to put out with his leading man.

Ben insinuated that he and Charles-Haden had been feuding over the course of the production, and even went so far as to threaten, "I just might [kill him], I'm warning you."

Ultimately, Ben's rage didn't amount to much more than a new mystery, as he dropped dead onstage in the show's opening moments, leaving the central trio in disbelief that murders don't only happen in the building at the Arconia.

"Season 3 is set up," Martin shared with ET of the Murders to come. "I believe in a complete story per year. I don't believe in [a cliffhanger] so every year they never solve the crime -- we actually solve the crime and then we will introduce a teaser for next year."

ET also spoke with Only Murders EP Dan Fogelman at the Hollywood Critics Association TV Awards last summer, where he opened up about landing Rudd for the cameo and hinted at his plans for season 3. 

"All I will say is that doors open up to you when you have Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez in your television show, and if they make a couple of telephone calls for you," he noted with a laugh. "That has been our North Star and our lucky star since we started it, and it continues to work for us."

The This Is Us creator also shared cryptically that "it's going to be a big season."

Only Murders in the Building season 3 premieres with two episodes on Aug. 8 on Hulu.

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