[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for the Season 3 finale of Will Trent.]

Summary

The Season 3 finale of the ABC series ‘Will Trent’ was packed with drama, revelations, and dangers for all.

Showrunners Liz Heldens and Daniel Thomsen focused on intimate moments amidst big action sequences.

Season 4 teases major changes for all the characters, emphasizing growth and seismic shifts.

From finding his footing again at the GBI and clashing with an old friend, to the tragic death of a teenager that he blames himself for, the shock of Angie’s (Erika Christensen) pregnancy, and the surprise announcement that Sheriff Caleb Broussard (Yul Vazquez) is actually his father, Will Trent (Ramón Rodríguez) has had plenty of his own drama in Season 3 of the ABC series. And now, with both Amanda (Sonja Sohn) and Ormewood’s (Jake McLaughlin) lives hanging in the balance, change is coming for everyone in Season 4.
During this interview with Collider, showrunners Liz Heldens and Daniel Thomsen discussed having such a jam-packed finale, putting everyone Will loves in danger including Betty, making the Will Trent version of an event episode, the one thing that was bread-crumbed throughout the season for a finale payoff, introducing Will’s father, staging two big shootouts, and how everyone will have to face changes moving forward.

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Collider: The episode just before the finale had enough going on with the reveals of both Angie’s pregnancy and Will’s biological father that it feels like that could have been a finale, and then you took everything up a notch. Because you set up so much to deal with, did you see this as a two-part finale?
DANIEL THOMSEN: Yeah, there was a lot that fed into the finale, for sure. We had the story of Ormewood’s health challenge. I feel like Angie’s emotional story that culminated in the finale began with her mother showing up. Originally, we had designs on bread-crumbing even more of the bio-weapon earlier in the season, but it became a little bit of a challenge to jam that stuff in there. There was a lot of story.
Everyone That Will Trent Loves Was in Danger in the Season 3 Finale

“We really could put everybody in legitimate danger and find surprising ways for that to happen.”

It feels like pretty much everybody is in jeopardy in some way, from Ormewood to Amanda to Nico. I was even worried about Betty for a minute. Why did you decide to give us anxiety over everyone?
LIZ HELDENS: We really love when all five of our characters are working on the same case. The situation with Will was that everybody he loves was in danger, and he says to Caleb, “And I’m driving the wrong way with you.” He does stop the attack and he does save the day. It just felt like we hadn’t done an episode this big. Our line producer kept reminding us that this is the biggest one we’ve done, telling us how far over budget we were. We planned for it, but it just seemed like, with such a big attack on the city of Atlanta, we really could put everybody in legitimate danger and find surprising ways for that to happen. It was a fun challenge for us, for sure.
THOMSEN: Our first two season finales were so intimate. They had such an intimacy to them. We wanted to see if we could do the action movie and make the big event. We both loved it when ER would do that, when we were watching TV coming up. What I was the most proud of was that I think we did. Howie [Deutch] did a great job directing it and the crew really put together an exciting episode, but it also felt very intimate. We didn’t overlook the really emotional impact that this huge event had. There were things that were going on while the big event was happening, so you could get the big and the small. It felt like we made a Will Trent version of an event episode.
HELDENS: Angie was worrying about whether she lost the baby or not and was talking to the baby in the air duct. Will was trying to deal with the fact that this guy is his father. And it was fun to put Franklin and Faith and Ormewood in their little story together. Kevin Daniels does such good work for us, but we’ve never given him a gun and seen him do action, so that was really fun for everybody.
THOMSEN: Liz bread-crumbed one thing through the season. Those laser pointers started early in the season. The laser pointer runner started in episode 4. We gave the crew a holiday gift of laser pointers. Laser pointers were this big thing and I was like, “Where is this going?” It paid off wonderfully. So, that’s where the finale started for us.
I thought it was particularly interesting how you introduced Will’s father. You brought in this character that you had rub everyone the wrong way, including Will, and then you told everybody that he’s actually Will’s father. What did you enjoy about approaching it in that way and making us hate him first before then winning us over with him?
THOMSEN: What’s satisfying as a producer is that you can have a plan for this character, which was designed to be a different kind of law enforcement officer that doesn’t have the same methods or philosophies as Will Trent, and that puts people off. And then, we cast Yul [Vazquez] and there’s something about him as an actor that is so warm. Even when he is standoffish, when we first meet him outside that house, and Will is screwing up and dropping banana bread all over the place, you were kind of on Yul’s side. Before you even knew he was Will’s father, you were evolving your understanding of who he is and what you want out of him as a character. I was just really struck by how, when we conceived the character, I was conceiving somebody who was a little bit more arch, which would have been harder to have him win over the audience. The actor just made me feel like, “Okay, I really want to see more episodes with this guy.”
HELDENS: We liked the idea that they’re birds of a feather. They have the same work ethic with no shortcuts. They can see each other in the other person.

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One shootout would be a lot in an episode, and you have both an indoor shootout and an outdoor shootout. Was one of those more challenging to pull off than the other?
HELDENS: The outside one was probably a little bit more challenging, just with the geography of what was going on and making sure that it all made sense. We were there for three days, and I think the GBI one was one day. What’s great about it is seeing Angie and Amanda paired up together, and seeing Angie save herself and save Amanda, hopefully, and seeing those two women try to get out of that situation together. It was the same with the other shootout with Ormewood and Faith and Franklin. The fun of it is seeing those three work together to get out of a situation and feel the emotion of almost losing one of them.
The Team of Female Archery Champions in the ‘Will Trent’ Finale Were Inspired by the Olympics

“When the Olympics were on, we were paying attention.”

Image via ABC

And you not only have the three of them, but then you just throw in a team of female archery champions. How did that idea come about? What was it like to cast those young women and bring them in and have them really step up for that moment?
THOMSEN: When the Olympics were on, as a writers’ room, we were paying attention. There were some really striking images of the archers and that captured everybody’s imagination.
HELDENS: One of them had auditioned for us for another part, and I just remembered her because she was just pretty unique. We were going to only bring one in from Los Angeles, but we ended up bringing two great actors in from Los Angeles. And then, we found this other great actor who was local. They just bonded. They wore their little hats and they looked like little ducklings. We filled them out with people from our stunt team. They were just so delightful, and the way that our characters interacted with them was so delightful. That was just really fun. We like to try to find surprises like that, so that it feels a little bit more like its own thing that’s unique. It worked out really well. Howie Deutsch was great with all those actors.
THOMSEN: We had this whole backstory that we put in there about how the girl who’s the star of the team actually missed the shot and cost them the championship. We created this whole drama and wondered if it would come across, but somehow it did.

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We don’t know for sure if Amanda will pull through. We don’t know what’s going to happen with Angie and this baby. We don’t know about Ormewood. We don’t even really know what’s going to happen with Will. What can you say to tease what you want to do with Season 4?
THOMSEN: One thing that is a common thread with all of them, leaving aside any catastrophic health outcome, is that it’s all about change. What’s exciting for us is that, in between the other two seasons, there was some change, but now, every character on the show is going through a little bit of a seismic change. And it’s a change that keeps them together in a way that we can continue making the show. They’re all the same people who are going to be a part of our law enforcement, but they’re going to have to find ways through some pretty big life changes. That’s exciting because that’s what life is.
Whose Life Might Change the Most in ‘Will Trent’ Season 4?

“There’s a lot of stuff happening.”

Image via ABC

Have you thought about who might have the biggest change to go through?
HELDENS: Angie is pregnant and that’s huge for her. She’s a person who’s never seen herself in that role. Will has collected a found family on our show, and now he’s going to see what it’s like to have the family that the universe chooses for you. Ormewood is a guy whose whole image of himself is wrapped up in strength, and we’re going to see where we find him. There’s a lot of stuff happening.
THOMSEN: It’s also a very interesting age for his kids to have to deal with something like that for him. He has to reevaluate what he owes his kids, in terms of how vulnerable he can be in front of them. There’s a lot there that’s intriguing to me.

Will Trent

Release Date

January 3, 2023

Network

ABC

Writers

Daniel T. Thomsen, Liz Heldens, Karin Slaughter

Will Trent airs on ABC and is available to stream on Hulu. Check out this fun moment from Season 3: