‘The Way Home’ Cast and Creator Tease Season 3 Time Jump, Whether Elliot’s Ex Will Appear and Hopes for a Movie
“The Way Home” Season 2 ended with Kat (Chyler Leigh) and Jacob (Spencer Macpherson) about to walk into their home — but viewers may not see Del’s (Andie MacDowell) reaction right away.
“We definitely can confirm that we do have to do a time jump, purely because of when we shoot,” co-showrunner Alexandra Clarke said during the show’s ATX TV Festival panel on Sunday, moderated by Variety. “We left them, obviously, in November of 2024, and we’re going to be shooting in August. So yeah, we do have to, that’s just the nature of our show. We do have to jump. But TBD on how much we do cheat things and stay and pick up right where we left off, you know very similarly to how we started Season 2 and then jumped.”
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While the Season 2 premiere picked up with a few short scenes of winter — where Season 1 ended — the show quickly skipped ahead seven months.
As for what storylines to expect, the cast and creators stayed mum to avoid revealing any spoilers. However, when asked whether or not Elliot’s (Evan Williams) ex-wife could be introduced, co-showrunner Heather Conkie paused, then asked, “Who have you been talking to?”
Leigh, who joked she isn’t told too much ahead of time because she shares things she shouldn’t, quickly responded, “Not me. I didn’t say anything!”
Clarke then noted that Elliot is “in such a strong place” at the end of Season 2 after breaking down that wall, there will be an “expansion of Elliot” in the new episodes. Plus, the love triangle with Kat and Thomas Coyle (Kris Holden-Ried) will likely continue — and there’s some connection to the present day. There is a sticker, in fact, that says “Coyle” on Colton’s guitar, which Alice now owns.
When asked whether the connection would be revealed in Season 3, Conkie replied, “I think so.”
Creator Marly Reed shed more light on the show’s many Easter eggs. “I think what’s cool is some started the writers’ room,” she said. “The Coyle sticker, in particular, we worked that in because our art team often names things after themselves as a joke. So that sticker, ‘Coyle’s,’ is one of our graphics people, Keeley Coyle. And then we noticed it and said, ‘We should work that into the story.’”
During the fan Q&A portion of the panel, one viewer asked if there would ever be a bottle episode or movie since there are so many different characters and not enough time for the audience to get to know each of them.
“We would love to do a movie… and a spinoff,” Conkie said. Clarke added, “It’s such a unique show in that way, because you do have cast in every single era, and what the heck are they doing when these people aren’t around? That in and of itself is something I’d want to see. I want to see 1999, teen Kat, Elliot, Nick, just their life without this situation.”
Although there hasn’t been a date announced yet for Season 3, the co-showrunners revealed in a panel on Saturday that they’re “pretty close to the end of finalizing the episodes” and hope to start production sooner than later, in order to take advantage of the warmer weather in Canada.
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