Season 3 of This Is Us is not what you’re expecting. Creator Dan Fogelman stopped by our “Watch With Us” podcast this week and gave Us a peak into what’s to come. Listen to the full podcast above (and subscribe here!) and get the highlights below:
More Singing
Both Chrissy Metz’s Kate and Mandy Moore’s Rebecca will have singing scenes this season. “It’s really beautiful,” Fogelman says.
The ‘Her’ Mystery
Fogleman confirmed that we have already met the mysterious “her” teased at the end of season 2, and we’ll get all of the answers this season. “We’re going to give a little piece in the premiere episode – not an answer but a piece. Then, by the halfway mark of the season, people will kind of know what all those throw-forwards at the season finale were,” he told Us, adding that it definitely won’t be a drawn-out question. “To have people getting distracted by it for too long defeats the purpose of the show.”
Exchanging Tears for Laughs
While last season was an emotional one, the tone will shift for season 3. “We have some stuff that is going to get talked about a lot in this first episode. It’s a great episode, really fun, really funny, but there’s some stuff at the end that will have people talking,” he said, adding that this season’s not less emotional but includes “a lot of feel good and humor.”
Who Is Toby?
There is an episode this season titled “Toby” later on in season 3 that will feature “a little bit of his life in snapshots pre-Kate, even as a little boy.”
Romance Like No Other
This season will show Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rebecca’s courtship, which Fogelman says is “really surprising” and the most romantic the show’s ever been — so much so that some scenes remind him of Casablanca. “It’s not loaded and sad. It’s not super emotional. It’s romantic, like movie star romantic and touching,” he said. “To watch them come together and be so unfamiliar with each other but clearly feeling something is so exciting. It’s a really different flavor for us that I’ve been drawn to.”
Answering the Questions
The season will also feature a look at the teenagers and a young Rebecca immediately following Jack’s death in what Fogleman calls the “heaviest” of the season as “the joy is gone” in the Pearson household: “You start to see the formation of the broken adults that we found at the pilot. How did Randall (Sterling K. Brown) become not just so decent, so good, but so steady and so close with his mother? How much did he take on? How did Kate fall apart? How did Kevin (Justin Hartley) transition from a broken-legged athlete to an actor? You start to fill some of those gaps but you’re in a very dark spell.” He also noted that while he doesn’t get emotional watching the show, there’s a scene between teenage Kate (Hannah Zeile) and Rebecca that really hit him hard: “It really got me.”
What About Sophie?
While Kevin is exploring a relationship with Zoe (Melanie Liburd) this season, “I would not count Sophie out at all,” Fogelman teases about Kevin’s ex, played by Alexandra Breckinridge.
William’s Return
Ron Cephas Jr.’s William “becomes a big part of this season,” but the writers on the show make sure not to overdo a story line that includes a “ghost William or ghost Jack” coming back to give advice. However, there’s a chance Ventimiglia will share the screen with Metz, Brown or Hartley again, in some way, this season.
This Is Us season 3 premieres on NBC Tuesday, September 25, at 9 p.m. ET.
