THE FOLLOWING Season 3 Premiere Post-Mortem: Alexi Hawley on the Twists and Turns to Come

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for THE FOLLOWING’s third season premiere. Please don’t read this interview until you’ve seen the episode.]

THE FOLLOWING is back!

To get a little intel on what’s to come this season — now that we’ve all seen the first hour — I spoke with THE FOLLOWING co-showrunner Alexi Hawley about Daisy and Kyle’s manipulations, the reveal of the driver who picked up Mark, Joe’s execution date, and more…

The show does feel different this season — quiet, in a way it hasn’t been before, and there wasn’t anything quite as extreme as we saw in the first two season’s premieres. How are you using the new tone to play with the audience’s expectations?
Alexi Hawley: We felt it was important when we came into this season to launch the next chapter of THE FOLLOWING. The first two seasons were so tied up in Joe Carroll and Ryan Hardy’s hunt for him. And even though we introduced some great new villains last year with Mark, Luke, Lily, and Dr. Strauss, we felt that not only did we want to talk about what life is beyond Joe Carroll — which isn’t to say he doesn’t play a significant part of the season — but it was important to us to tell some very suspenseful stories to sometimes [showcase] what you don’t see can be as scary or disturbing as what you do see, and to really live more in the thriller aspect of it, and the tension of it, instead of just the violence of it. And I think, ultimately, that makes the violence more effective when it does happen.

What is the time frame for season 3?
AH: The thing about our show is that ultimately because things move so quickly, it doesn’t cover that big of a time period. I think season 2 might have only been two or three weeks. For us, [season 3] is longer than that — it takes place over a month or two, if you think about it — versus a year or anything like that. Things tend to happen quickly on our show.

There was the line in the premiere about Joe’s execution date — where does that fall in the season, and what can you say about that looming deadline?
AH: Well, he is on death row. He did escape from prison several times in the first two seasons, so for us, that felt like a card we couldn’t really play.

That being said, Joe is not without his resources. The date of his execution does happen during the course of our season, I will say that. But how that plays out, I can’t say.

Absolutely fair. There were some flashbacks in the premiere to showcase what had happened in the year since we last saw these characters. How much will you be utilizing that tool going forward?
AH: We honestly aren’t using it much at all. Some of the work we do in the first episode [with it] is letting you know how Mike and Max ended up in this place where he ultimately chose revenge over love, and left her to pursue Mark. When he comes back, she’s moved on, she’s in a new relationship, creating something of a love triangle for us. Beyond that, we don’t go to the flashbacks that much in terms of what happened between seasons.

Daisy and Kyle are up to some tricks behind Mark’s back. What can you tease about how that reveal will play out and what his reaction to being played will be?
AH: I don’t think he’s going to be happy about that! I started on the show in season 2, and what I love about season 1 was this aspect the conspiracy of things unfolding, and things constantly surprising you. We wanted that to go on during the course of this season — to keep twisting. Every time you think you know what’s going on, we try and twist it, so you’re not really sure, and friends become enemies and enemies become friends.

For us, yes, Daisy and Kyle do have a different agenda than Mark [does], and they do seem to be operating behind his back — sometimes with him, other times without him. Ultimately, it’s a big reveal what that is, and that takes place in the early part of the season.

Speaking of reveals, we learned THE FOLLOWING newbie Andrew (played by Michael Irby) was the one driving the car at the end of last season’s finale. At the end of last season your co-showrunner Marcos Siega mentioned the writers had an idea of who would be driving — how close did that line up with what actually played out?
AH: I think, ultimately, it ended up being fairly close. We didn’t have a name, but we did think that the way that person was connected with Mark is the way that person is ultimately connected to Mark in this season. However, there are some things going on behind-the-scenes [of that relationship] that we didn’t put in motion last year that ultimate twisted it a little bit, and in conspiracy land, with people having their own agendas, which is a cryptic answer.

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What did you think of THE FOLLOWING’s season premiere?

Related:

THE FOLLOWING: Kevin Bacon and Shawn Ashmore on Season 3’s New Big Bad, the Ryan-Mike Partnership, and More
THE FOLLOWING: Alexi Hawley Teases Season 3’s New Faces
THE FOLLOWING: Season 3 Cast Photos
THE FOLLOWING Season 3 Premiere: ‘New Blood’ Photos

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