Big Skyis back… this time withReba McEntireandJensen Ackles.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Could you start by teasing the new central mystery of season 3?
In this family-run glamping outfit, a bunch of guests come up missing.
ABC/Michael Moriatis
We begin to realize, as the season progresses, that the Barnes family has a lot of secrets.
This season we are also doing little runner mysteries, case-of-the-week formatting, in addition to our big mystery.
One of the biggest reasons we’re doing that is we’ve Jensen Ackles.
You’ve got these two big new stars this season Reba McEntire and Jensen Ackles.
How did both of those casting decisions come about?
Jensen is one of those guys that I’ve always wanted to work with.
He’s one of those guys that I’ve always loved.
He’s someone my daughter and my wife likes, and a lot of guys like.
There’s not a lot of people out there that tick all those boxes.
Mutual friends put us in touch.
He’s from Texas.
So, I pitched this Texas-throw in character that finds himself up in Montana.
I can’t say enough good things about him.
He walks on the set and it changes.
Reba is someone who a lot of us grew up with.
I had written a character, and I described her as “Reba McEntire, circaTremors.”
I always loved that character.
So I called her and pitched her the character.
We all have this image of Reba McEntire as being America’s sweetheart, country music star.
I was very nervous about pitching her this character that goes into some dark places.
He said, “I’ve been telling her she needs to do this for 10 years.”
And then Reba stopped and said, “Will you hire my boyfriend Rex?”
I know Rex fromBetter Call Sauland lots of stuff that he’s worked on.
And I was like, “Well, alright, that’s two for one.”
Working with someone like Reba, you’re really nervous.
She put me at ease within two seconds.
Part of what I like to do with the show is build out their personal life.
We’re going to learn more about that.
His daughter’s up there on the glamping trip too, as the mystery pops off.
Why did she leave him for this other guy?
Is that something we might see develop further?
It’s funny, both of them said the same thing.
But I’ll say this Jensen has a lot of chemistry with Kylie too.
He’s a very charming guy.
We’re going to play with that idea, and tease it little bit.
The actors get very nervous.
We keep everybody honest that way.
You’ve mentioned that this is a little bit of a darker role for Reba.
Can you tease whether she’s friend or foe to our heroes?
A little bit of both.
The way I pitched her character is there’s a lot of this in Reba herself.
She’s a mama bear that you don’t cross.
What’s going to be fun is seeing how far she’ll go to defend her family.
You’ve also promoted Jamie-Lynn Sigler to series regular this year.
She’s separating herself from the Bhullars.
Her and Donno are the weirdOdd Coupleof the show.
Jenny and Cassie don’t like her.
They feel like they were used by her.
She’s going to be a little bit of abete noirthroughout the season.
Will we see more of them or have they left town?
Janina and Vinny were amazing, and Janina brought so much to the role.
I purposely did not kill them, so anybody can come back.
But the focus this season is really on the Reba storyline.
Again, they’re not dead.
Right now, we have no plans.
But I haven’t got through the whole season yet.
How much might this romance between Mark (Omar Metwally) and Cassie continue to develop?
Mark Lindor is not present when we start the show.
There’s someone involved in Reba’s world that she begins to have a bit of a flirtation with.
Last year, we found Cassie in really dark times.
Her father was killed.
She hunted down Ronald.
She was in a bit of a fragile place.
She gets obsessed with this case of the missing backpacker.
That becomes her focus.
Will we get any resolution there?
We might get a little, but I don’t believe so.
Right now, given the current mystery with the Reba storyline, our crew has their hands full.
That’s what’s fun aboutBig Sky, is we can bring characters back.
The one character I know all the writers and myself are obsessed with is Scarlet.
She’s still out there.
And in many ways, she was even more terrifying than Ronald.
If you had to sum up season 3 in three words, what would you say?
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Big Sky: Deadly Trailspremieres Sept. 21 at 10 p.m.
