For two seasons, Fox's FBI agent/serial killer cat-and-mouse drama The Following saw its lead Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon) struggle to catch up to the big bad, Joe Carroll (James Purefoy). Each season, as one man quite literally chased the other, a trail of blood and bodies was left in its wake. But even though Hardy finally caught and re-imprisoned Carroll — this time on death row — at the end of the second season, the story is far from over. In fact, "the killing is only the beginning," as those who were left behind last year — and some new faces to soon pop up — have a much deeper message for Hardy.
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"We took the law into our own hands a lot of times, and I felt there should be some price to pay for that, so characters start to expose secrets about what we did and the methods that we used," Bacon says in this exclusive first look season three featurette.
As Bacon and Shawn Ashmore previously told The Hollywood Reporter, the events of the previous seasons are not far from the characters' minds, despite being a year later when season three picks up. Mike (Ashmore) in particular has been actively hunting Mark, and as this featurette shows, Mark may also have some unfinished business with them.
"Our boy Mark [Sam Underwood] is punishing us for killing his family last year. These murder scenes are re-creations of their deaths," Hardy says.
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The threat to Hardy and company this time is "confess while there's still time. Until you tell the world what you did, innocent people will keep dying." But in turning the threat inward and going after these characters in a more personal way, the show is changing its focus a bit in a drive to welcome new viewers, as well as welcome back long-time ones.
As executive producer and director Marcos Siega previews: "The tone is just flipped on its head. Where we have traditionally spent time and invested in the bad guys, now we're going to get to do that with the good guys. The intention was "How can we have the show evolve, but do it in a way where if you've never seen the show before, you can jump in and follow along?""
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Watch the full featurette, including the new love triangle between Mike, Max (Jessica Stroup), and Tom (Gbenga Akinnagbe), below:
The Following returns to Fox on March 2 at 8 p.m. What kind of killer could possibly be worse than Joe Carroll? Pitch your best ideas in the comments below.
Twitter: @danielletbd
