Roswell, New Mexico/Season 3

Season 3
Premiere episode	Hands 2021
Finale episode	TBA 2021
Series	Roswell, New Mexico
Total episodes	13
Network	The CW
Showrunner	Christopher Hollier
Slogan	TBA

Season 3 of The CW television series Roswell, New Mexico was confirmed on January 7, 2020. Filming began October 13, 2020. The season will have 13 episodes.

The premiere will be mid-season in 2021, presumably around June or July, although a premiere date has not been announced.

Prior to production, series creator and showrunner Carina Adly MacKenzie resigned from the series. Her co-showrunner Christopher Hollier remained on as the sole showrunner.

Synopsis

An official synopsis was released on May 14, 2020:

In season three, still reeling from the events of last year, the Roswell aliens and their allies are drawn back together through a threat from a familiar stranger and a murder that has not yet happened. From near and from far, amidst breakups, reunions, scientific advancements and the impending death of someone they hold dear, our heroes must grapple with two central questions: Who enters our lives and defines who we are? And what power do we really have over our own futures? ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO stars Jeanine Mason, Nathan Dean, Michael Vlamis, Lily Cowles, Tyler Blackburn, Heather Hemmens, Michael Trevino, Trevor St. John and Amber Midthunder. ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO is from Amblin Entertainment, My So-Called Company and Bender Brown Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television and CBS Television Studios, with executive producers Carina Adly MacKenzie (“The Originals”), Christopher Hollier (“Once Upon A Time”), Julie Plec (“The Vampire Diaries”), Darryl Frank, Justin Falvey (“The Americans”), Lawrence Bender (“Pulp Fiction”) and Kevin Kelly Brown (“Roswell”).

Cast and characters

Starring:

• Jeanine Mason as Liz Ortecho
• Nathan Dean as Max Evans and Jones
• Michael Vlamis as Michael Guerin
• Lily Cowles as Isobel Evans-Bracken
• Tyler Blackburn as Alex Manes
• Heather Hemmens as Maria DeLuca
• Michael Trevino as Kyle Valenti
• Amber Midthunder as Rosa Ortecho

Recurring guest stars returning from previous seasons:

TBA

Recurring guest stars introduced in season three:

• Steven Krueger as Heath
• David DeSantos as Edgar
• Michael Grant Terry as Jordan Bernhardt
• Gillian Vigman as Brooke Taylor
• Quentin Plair as Dallas

Non-recurring guest stars:

TBA

Co-stars returning from previous seasons:

TBA

Non-recurring co-stars of named characters:

TBA

Unknown billing/recurring cast:

• Gavin Houston as tba

Episodes

The season is anticipated to have 13 episodes.

#		Title	Air Date	Director	Writer
27	1	Hands	2021	Lance Anderson	Carina Adly MacKenzie
28	2	Give Me One Reason	2021	Lance Anderson	Eva McKenna & Deirdre Mangan
29	3	Black Hole Sun	2021	April Winney	Eva McKenna & Onalee Hunter Hughes
30	4	Walk on the Ocean	2021	April Winney	Onalee Hunter Hughes & Christopher Hollier
31	5	Killing Me Softly With His Song	2021	Rachel Raimist	Alanna Bennett & Danny Tolli
32	6	Bitter Sweet Symphony	2021	Rachel Raimist	Leah Longoria & Steve Stringer
33	7	Goodnight Elizabeth	2021	Heather Hemmens	Kristen Haynes & Christopher Hollier
34	8	Free Your Mind	2021	Ben Hernandez Bray	Ashley Charbonnet & Joel Thompson

Development and production

On January 7, 2020, two months before the premiere of season 2, The CW gave Roswell, New Mexico an early renewal along with twelve other series.

The start of production was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On May 9, 2020, Carina Adly MacKenzie was clear that they could not return to set "until it's 100% safe for everyone on the crew". On May 14, 2020, The CW revealed that their regular Fall TV season was pushed back to January 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Roswell, New Mexico is a mid-season series, so this also pushed back its expected release to mid-2021.

On July 10, 2020, showrunner and series creator Carina Adly MacKenzie announced that she was resigning from the series due to "fundamental disagreements about a couple of things that were and are very important to [her]". Seasons 1 and 2 were co-showrun by MacKenzie and Christopher Hollier. Hollier remained on as sole showrunner for season 3.

Filming began on October 13, 2020 with new health and safety measures in place.

Hints and anticipated story-lines

This section documents all hints from official sources about what may be included in season 3 and the show's development.

• The season will acknowledge that COVID-19 happened, but will time-skip past the quarantine period.
  • MacKenzie pitched the possibility of the show taking place during quarantine, but her bosses didn't like the idea.

• New COVID-19 safety restrictions on set might limit or prevent certain elements from being in the show.
  • Intimacy scenes, such as hugging or kissing, might be limited.
  • Fight scenes might be limited.
  • Scenes with a number of extras might no longer be allowed, such as scenes with customers at the Wild Pony or the Crashdown Cafe.
  • Out-of-town guest stars might be reduced or eliminated. This could impact recurring guest stars as well, such as Sherri Saum who portrays Mimi DeLuca.
  • In regards to the extra costs with these safety measures, Carina Adly MacKenzie stated that it would likely be "a hit to the quality of the product" rather than "a hit to the profits. We’ll make it safe first... then do our best with the money that’s left."
  • In regards to not allowing actors to kiss, Carina Adly MacKenzie shared one way they considered handling it: "We had a writer pitch, well what if the aliens are getting stronger and now every time they touch anyone, the person comes away with like an alien handprint on them. We were like, okay, maybe that's how we prevent these two people from kissing for an entire season because you can't touch her because she'll start to glow." (Note that this was just a possibility, not a confirmed story element.)
  • In regards to not being able to pack extras in enclosed spaces such as the Crashdown and the Wild Pony, Carina Adly MacKenzie shared a possible way they might handle that: "Our diner will be take-out only. Our bar will have shut down, because they couldn't sustain through the quarantine." (Note that this was just a possibility, not a confirmed story element.)

• Isobel's next love interest will be with a woman.

• A new character named Heath will be introduced: "He’s a guy. American. Around 30."

• About Jones:
  • "Mr. Jones is going to be a major player moving forward, and he might be a little different than what he seems. He really has been in season 2 presented as the villain, but we’re going to learn in season 3 that the story of Nora and Louise might be the story that they wanted told. So, we’re having some fun with unreliable narrators".
  • "Obviously, Mr. Jones is related in some way to Max, so we are going to dig into what Max's family history looks like. We're also going to discover in season three that the story that we heard about Nora and Louise may have been the story that they wanted to tell, so our tale about Mr. Jones, even though he seems like a threatening figure right now, is a little more complicated right now."
  • "The insights that he gives the aliens into where they come from and why they're here is going to put interesting new pressure on Michael, Max, and Isobel and take their relationships to a very different space. He's not necessarily the villain, and all three of our aliens are going to have different expectations, different perspectives on whether or not they can trust him."
  • "[Max] really felt adrift, and he discovered that he was sort of the only one who didn't have information about his family, and Jones comes with a whole lot of information about Max's family."

• Liz "will definitely meet some new and interesting people while she's away." "We'll do a bit of a time jump within season three, and Liz will of course be drawn back to Roswell when she gets some new information, but her time in California is going to be really important and really transformative for her." "Liz's romantic life is always going to be at odds with her ambition, and she's gonna have to find a way to reconcile both of those things."

• One of the cast members will direct this season.

• Max will play guitar.

• Riley Voelkel, who portrays Jenna Cameron, presumably will not appear in season 3 due to scheduling conflicts caused by COVID-19.

Gallery

Promotional images

Main article: Roswell, New Mexico/Season 3/Gallery