Fans of Hallmark’s The Way Home might not have expected it to become one of the network’s standout dramas. The series debuted in 2023, with a cast led by Andie MacDowell, Chyler Leigh, Sadie Laflamme-Snow and Evan Williams. It blends generational storytelling with a time-travel twist that has captivated viewers across multiple platforms. Its emotional themes of loss, love and second chances have earned it both critical acclaim and a passionate audience.
The first two seasons of The Way Home are now streaming on Netflix, giving new viewers and longtime fans alike a chance to revisit Port Haven. With buzz building about what’s next for the Hallmark Channel project, there’s no time like the present to dive into what’s known about The Way Home season four so far.
Where does ‘The Way Home’ take place?
The Way Home is set in the fictional Canadian town of Port Haven, where the Landry family farmhouse and its mysterious pond lie at the heart of both its emotional and supernatural threads. The calm landscape of this rural setting mirrors the introspective tone of the series. In particular, the pond acts as a kind of time portal, anchoring moments where past and present converge, per PrimeTimer. It’s where many of The Way Home‘s most emotional and temporal tensions begin.
The Hallmark series is actually filmed in Ontario, Canada
While Port Haven is fictional, filming for The Way Home takes place primarily in southern Ontario, Canada, according to IMDb. Locations around Port Perry – in particular, parts of Uxbridge, Bluffer’s Park with views of the Scarborough Bluffs and the greater Toronto area – played a part in creating the world of the Landry family.
As Parade reports, filming for the series first began in August 2022 in Port Perry. Ontario’s rural settings stand in as Port Haven throughout later episodes. As viewers may suspect, various landscapes were required to depict the show’s shifts through time. To execute this, production alternated between several central locations in Canada.
The countryside of Ontario doubles for The Way Home‘s timeless, small-town charm, but some set design helped to blend natural landscapes and constructed farm sets. The scenic backdrops for the Landry homestead and the surrounding community have, over three seasons, become central to the story’s identity. Because Port Haven is fictional, the show’s creators enjoyed the flexibility to produce the more lived-in feel of the Landry property.
How did Jacob die in ‘The Way Home’?
The disappearance of Jacob “Jake” Landry (Remy Smith) in 1999 is one of the most heartbreaking and mysterious moments in The Way Home, despite its complex storyline. He is the brother of Kat Landry (Chyler Leigh) and son of Delilah “Del” (Andie MacDowell) and Colton Landry (Jefferson Brown). Per Entertainment Weekly, as a young boy, Jacob vanished after chasing a stray dog toward the pond on the Landry property. This disappearance justifiably left his family shattered as they assume he’s drowned or disappeared forever.
In The Way Home, we eventually learn that Jacob didn’t actually die. Instead, he was pulled into the pond and transported to the early 1800s. His time-travel journey becomes deeply entwined with the show’s larger mystery, and it’s closely linked to the backstory of Elliot Augustine, one of the Landrys’ closest connections.
Elliot (Evan Williams) is not only a long-time family friend, but he’s also Alice’s (Sadie Laflamme-Snow) physics teacher in the present day. After reconnecting with Kat following high school, Elliot becomes her love interest, which adds another layer of intrigue to his ties with the Landrys. All of this underscores how central the pond’s powers are to shaping their destinies.
So, Jacob’s “death” in one timeline is more symbolic than literal. It denotes a tragic and complicated separation across time, but it’s certainly not the last we see of him in The Way Home.
What happened to Colton?
The story of Colton Landry is another cornerstone of the series’ emotional depth, as Soaps reports. He is a devoted husband and father (to Kat and Jacob) who died in a car accident in 2000, in the current timeline. This loss drives much of the Landry family’s pain and estrangement. In later episodes, Kat and Alice discover through time travel that Colton’s death wasn’t a random event. He crashed after swerving to avoid hitting Kat, who had unknowingly traveled back in time.
This revelation reframes the tragedy as a heartbreaking paradox, with Kat’s attempt to understand her family’s past inadvertently contributing to it. Colton’s presence in The Way Home lives on through flashbacks and alternate timelines. This ultimately hints that he may have understood more about the pond’s secrets than anyone realized.
Will there be a season four of ‘The Way Home’?
According to Good Housekeeping, The Way Home has been renewed for a fourth season. Just before the season three finale, Evan Williams’ Instagram lit up with a post confirming that the Hallmark show is available to view on Netflix and a new season is coming.
Season four of The Way Home is expected to premiere in 2026. This will continue the Landry family’s story, which revolves around love, mystery and time travel. As TV Insider reports, upcoming episodes are rumored to explore some more timelines, including one set in 1925. It will also further unravel the mysteries surrounding the pond.
Showrunners Alexandra Clarke and Heather Conkie hinted in a Collider interview that the series will deepen its exploration of family legacy and the cost of changing history. Before season four was confirmed, Clarke expressed, “If we do get the opportunity, we know where we want to go. We know what we want to do. As we said earlier, there are just so many more stories to tell.”
For those still catching up on The Way Home, seasons one and two are now streaming on Netflix, with season three slated to premiere on the platform in February 2026. If all comes according to plan, the family drama’s fourth installment will be available for viewing late next year.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the house in The Way Home the same as Anne with an E?
According to Dexerto, the Landry family home was previously utilized for Netflix’s Anne with an E. Interestingly, before it became a part of the Hallmark Channel line-up, The Way Home was slated for a release as a Netflix Original.
Where can I watch season three of The Way Home?
As super fans know, season three aired first on the Hallmark Channel and now streams on Hallmark+. It’s scheduled to join Netflix in February 2026, which gives fans a chance to rewatch the full story before season four debuts later in the year.