Will Trent wrapped up its third season with several shockers. Will (Ramón Rodríguez) discovered his biological father when he and Faith (Iantha Richardson) went to oversee a case in a small Georgia town. Amanda Wagner (Sonja Sohn) was left fighting for her life after taking a bullet to the chest. Michael Ormewood (Jake McLaughlin), who has a brain tumor, also is near death after collapsing in his kitchen with a seizure. And Angie (Erika Christensen) was pregnant with Dr. Seth McDale’s (Scott Foley) baby.
It’s a lot to unpack, but Parade had the opportunity to speak with showrunners Liz Heldens and Daniel Thomsen to get their take on Season 3.
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Will accidentally discovered his biological father when DNA had to be run from a compromised crime scene. All the alleles matched up, indicating that Will and small-town Sheriff Caleb Roussard (Yul Vazquez), who disliked each other at first sight, were father and son.
“It’s exciting to think about Will,” Heldens said. “He has his chosen family that he collected, and we’ve seen some of that develop on our show. And now he’s going to see what it’s like to have the family that the universe chooses for you. That’s going to come with its ups and downs. We both hope that there is some hope in that story and some light. It’s exciting; it’s a big change.”
Disney/Wilford Harewood
An essential person to Will’s collected family is his boss, Amanda Wagner, who discovered him in a trashcan as a newborn and saved his life. Amanda tried to adopt him, but back in the day, it was near impossible for a single woman to adopt a baby on her own. Amanda also rescued Will again when he was released from child protective services and got in trouble. She got him back on the right path, but even so, it has been hard for Will to accept her as family. She has been tough on him, but watching her in her hospital bed, knowing the next 48 hours were crucial, made him finally admit she was family.
“It’s hard for him to let people in,” Heldens said. “She loves him, but she’s hard on him, and she will badger him. They have a contentious relationship. But I think underneath there’s this big mutual respect and love. It is maternal, it just is, that’s just the fact.”
Disney/Wilford Harewood
Heldens was on the set the night the hospital scene was filmed and was taken aback by how moved she felt.
“We’ve never seen him say anything like that to her,” she continued. “They’re both so weird about their feelings, and they’re not people who say the subtext usually. And so, it was really satisfying to hear him say what she means to him and how much having her in his life is a stabilizing force. It was really important to us to hear that.”
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Of course, neither Heldens nor Thomsen would reveal Amanda’s fate. And truth be told, they haven’t opened the writers’ room for Season 4 yet. The duo is taking a mental health break to recharge. But we did get more of a spoilery answer on Ormewood, who has been fighting with the VA to get all the necessary steps taken care of, like blood work and scans, to get his brain tumor removed. But it’s gone on too long, and now he’s collapsed.
“I think that he was putting it off in a way that he was very scared by what was going on and what that would mean for him as a parent. He’s responsible for his kids,” Thomsen said of Ormewood’s surgery. “He’s going to get the surgery. I think that whatever the outcome is he’s going to be very different.”
Disney/Zac Popik
One of the reasons why Ormewood is going through the VA rather than use his APD insurance, per Heldens and Thomsen, is that he doesn’t want the APD to know his condition because he doesn’t want his job to change or people to treat him differently.
“One thing that we like about this journey is that Ormewood, more than anybody else on our show, is defined by physical strength,” Thomsen continued. “He’s a soldier, and he takes a lot of pride in that. He might not have that at his disposal anymore or have it as much. It becomes a story about if you lose something, what do you discover that’s new about yourself. That’s what we’re excited to explore in the next season for him.”
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And then there’s Angie’s pregnancy. We watched as Angie went to the hospital to visit her mother, who has been in a coma for 12 years. But the end has finally come. She did her mom’s makeup and hair and beseeched her to wake up so they could have a second chance. We watched flashbacks of how abusive her mother was to her, and then fantasies as Angie pictures how it could be if her mom woke up. Unfortunately, her mom passed.
Disney/Zac Popik
Angie, who had been doing so well on her program, relapsed and began drinking again, oblivious to the fact that she’s pregnant and might be hurting her unborn child. But when she did find out her condition, she faced the issue of whether or not she was suitable to be a good mother.
“I experienced this as somebody who did not think that she was worthy, because of her own mother,” Thomsen says. “But what I loved about watching it was that I’m like, ‘No you are worthy.’ I think everybody outside of Angie knows that she has already surpassed her mother in so many ways. This is her decision to make. There’s no destiny here that’s like you can’t be a mother because of what your mother did to you. She’s way beyond that. To me, the most interesting story to tell is putting her down that path and seeing what happens. It’s not going to go according to plan; it’s always going to be messy. But do it, you deserve it, if that’s what you want.”
Will Trent will return to ABC as part of the Fall 2025-2026 schedule, but it’s being held until midseason after Dancing with the Stars wraps and the Tuesday night timeslot is once again available. In the meantime, all three seasons of episodes are streaming on Hulu.
Next, Find Out If Your Favorite Show Is Coming Back or Canceled with Our Fall TV 2025-2026 Guide!
