Are you finishing up Orange Is The New Black and thinking ahead to Season 4? After everything that happened this season, I'm both excited and worried for what happens next. For starters, is Natasha Lyonne coming back to Orange Is The New Black? Nicky may have been in max for the majority of the latest season, but will the actress return? If you haven't finished the season on Netflix yet, you might want to get yourself to max because there are Season 3 spoilers ahead.
Unfortunately, we don't know yet. While early set reports have rumored that Alex Vause may be alive and well-ish, there's no word on whether or not Nicky Nicholls will return next year. Natasha Lyonne may be in a Tanlines video, but we don't know if she's still on Orange Is The New Black. The cast of the Jenji Kohen series has often changed — different inmates have changed their contractual status from recurring to main and back. However, contracts can't always be trusted, and I'm not trying to make this about Jon Snow either. Natasha Lyonne was listed as the main cast for Season 3.
There are many ways that Natasha Lyonne could return to the Orange Is The New Black and/or Litchfield as Nicky. She may already be there — was anybody else searching the faces arriving in the series finale for Nicky (and Miss Claudette, for that matter)? Or, just like Pornstache ultimately found out that he's not the father of Daya's baby, I have a feeling that Luschek will ultimately get caught for drug trafficking with Nicky. He was bragging way too much about his windfall towards the end of the season. The truth will out.
I don't necessarily want this to happen. I like Luschek, and he wasn't wrong — I'm confident that Nicky did put the heroin in his desk (you can see her glancing at the drawer way before they get caught). Still, she shouldn't have taken the fall like that and definitely doesn't need to be in maximum security. Nicky's story can't be over so soon!
All that said, I doubt we'll be in the dark for long. We should be hearing more about Season 4 of Orange Is The New Black in the coming months as filming continues. Announcements about casting should follow. For example, we learned that Uzo Aduba, Danielle Brooks, and Taryn Manning had been upped to series regulars the August after Season 1 was released. If Natasha Lyonne is in fact leaving the series, we should know soon enough. Until then, no news is good news!
Images: JoJo Whilden/Netflix
