Roswell, New Mexico's third season promises to solve plenty of mysteries that Season 2 created. Taking place in the titular city, The CW series follows Liz Ortecho (Jeanine Mason) after she returns to her hometown and shockingly discovers that her childhood friends are actually aliens. Along with this, Liz's world is thrown further into chaos with the introduction of an alien serial killer, the resurrection of her sister, Rosa (Amber Midthunder), and the reveal of a new resident alien at the end of Season 2 -- leaving Liz with plenty of questions.
The newest season of The CW series will explore what'll happen to Liz and Max (Nathan Parsons)'s relationship, who Jones is, what's in store for Rosa, and what is the real reason Max, Isobel (Lily Cowles), and Michael (Michael Vlamis) came down to Earth in the first place. Prior to the premiere of Season 3, showrunner Chris Hollier sat with CBR for an exclusive interview to confirm that this season will tackle these plot points, as well as shed some light on how Roswell, New Mexico Season 3 came to be during the pandemic.
CBR: As a showrunner, what about Roswell made you want to tell this story?
As a whole or just a particular season?
Let's get started as a whole and then we can work into Season 3.
What I love about Roswell is the opportunity to talk about the blending of cultures and ideas, and how you make that world a better place. And then specifically, I would say that Season 3, because it was made during a time of so many crazy things going on in our world, what we looked at as we crafted our villain and ideas was something that we saw the world as a place that was trying to be divided, voices saying we should be separate. And then we thought about how real heroes find a way to come together, and that's really the main core that we built through Season 3.
Wonderful, and with every season of Roswell, the show isn't afraid to tackle social and political issues, as well as all the sci-fi shenanigans going on, so what makes Roswell such a great show to tackle these important issues?
Yes. This year, we started getting into something that when we started it, we crafted a storyline that unfortunately dovetailed with reality, which was looking at regiments and what it means to stand up in a group in not the safe way. And I think that's going to be a powerful moment to see up on the screen. We were actually editing that episode, the culmination of that episode, the week the Capital was stormed.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, so I wish that art was not mimicking real life in those instances, but I still think it's a good message to put out there, to see.
What messages with Season 3 specifically are you really excited for audiences to see this time around?
On a romantic, personal level, I'm curious for them to see what I think happens in major relationships is where you really get to discuss, "Is this the person I want to move forward with or not?" Like, why am I drawn to particular people in my life, and does that say something good or bad about myself? Because just because you're drawn to something doesn't mean it's good for you. It's hard as a human being to figure that out sometimes. So I think that's going across all of our love relationships, and even our hero-villain stuff. Why am I interested in talking and spending time with this person?
And speaking a little bit about the villain, as well as the stakes for the season, every season of Roswell seems to raise those stakes even higher, first with bringing back Rosa, and then that major reveal at the end of Season 2. So how does Season 3 continue that upward momentum with the stakes?
Well, for us, we had the opportunity to look at Season 3 and start asking the room, "What are all of the questions that we've put out, and can we answer them all?" So, every thread that we've laid out, we start to come back and bring together, and having someone like Jones, who knows so much about our heroes, we were able to give our heroes the answers that they've been seeking, like why they were here. What were the circumstances that made them leave? All of those things that they've been searching for themselves, so we give them a nice, new platform and way to look at their lives.
Nice, and speaking about the heroes, you've been with Roswell since the beginning, so which character's growth has been the most fun for you to watch and why?
Interesting. It's different from, I would say from what I might say this season. One that's been really interesting to track is Rosa's experience. I say Rosa has her biggest storyline to date this season, which starts to build off everything that we put her through last season. So if we pulled her down a little bit over Season 2, we get to watch what it's like when someone's committed to pulling themselves out.
I say Maria (Heather Hemmens) also, Maria and Kyle (Michael Trevino)... What I'm excited about is some of our middle players. I would say, though, there was the benefit of COVID. We had to really lean into our core group, so they've got larger storylines this year in a way that they might not have been able to get in Season 2.
Since we opened the door for how you had to adjust to COVID affecting filming and production, what was the most challenging thing about creating Season 3 during this time period?
The most challenging thing I think would be how do we put people together in close proximity? How do we get them to fight? How do we get them to kiss at a time where we're not supposed to be near each other? And how do we do it? How do we do it in an environment where everyone felt safe, and it was great. But there was some like "how do we crack this" when we began. But our other goal is to -- because we didn't know what the world looked like when it started airing -- make it seem that this was the place to escape to, so we weren't reminding them of COVID. And how do we make the show look like the show that you love, but still make sure that we've done everything on our end, that we were able to do without you noticing that magic trick?
We talked about what was most challenging with the production for Season 3, so what was the most fun memory for you about going into production for Season 3.
In the middle of the season, many of our actors ended up in a scene together, and that's something you don't often do on TV, and we didn't think we could do at the beginning when we started with COVID. And we happened to be blowing something up that night as part of the scene. So there was all the fun of a firework show, and there was all the fun of those people getting to interact with each other and feeling the joy that together we were making something that we loved in a good way.
And looking back at your time on the show, you've written several of the episodes, which one has been your favorite to write and why?
Which one is my favorite to write? I think my favorite one leading up to Season 3 was getting to write number 12 in Season 1, where Michael and Alex (Tyler Blackburn) are separated by that piece of glass. I think that was my favorite scene, where they talk about not leaving each other when the place is going to explode, so that was a fun episode. Yeah, there's lots of really good writing that I have to commend the whole team for this season. Super fun stuff.
Awesome, and speaking of some of the super fun stuff, without getting too much into spoilers, what are you most excited for audiences to see in Season 3? And what do you hope they take away from this season?
I'm excited for them to start to wonder who Jones is and what that plan is. I'm also excited for them, for our core couples, for Liz and Max, for Alex and Michael, for them to wonder how and if these guys are going to be able to figure their stuff out, and what it looks like to do that? What is the work to decide whether or not you're supposed to be with somebody?
If you could describe Season 3 for Roswell, New Mexico in three words, what would they be?
I don't know if I can do it in three words? Like Charles Dickens, I have too many.
There seems to be plenty to be excited about for Season 3 of Roswell, New Mexico, with its first episode airing Monday, July 26 8/7c on the CW.