After La Brea's Showrunner Hyped New Conflicts On The Way, One Star Will Appear A Lot Less In Final Season
Prepare to see less of one star but new conflicts and characters!
La Brea is on the way back to NBC in the 2024 TV schedule for the third and final season, which will run for just six episodes. The show has a lot of stories to wrap up within that shortened season, and it will reportedly do so with a lot less of one of the original series regulars. The news comes following a reveal from showrunner David Appelbaum about new conflicts and characters, and suggests that fans should have big questions about what's in store.
What To Expect, According To The Showrunner
The Season 2 finale (available streaming now with a Peacock Premium subscription) ended on a dino-sized cliffhanger, with the auroras opening up from different times to allow some creatures from the past to arrive in 10,000 B.C. That included a T-rex, although the episode only showed the foot and the head in silhouette. That was more than enough to send Gavin, Izzy, and Josh running for their lives. Eve, of course, wasn't with them after she was pulled through one of the many portals that opened, leaving her family with no way of knowing where (or when) she was, let alone with the means to know how to reunite with her in La Brea Season 3.
I spoke with showrunner David Appelbaum for the Season 2 finale back in February, when he previewed the incredibly high-stakes of the episode that would set up Season 3 and addressed Eve's fate. When asked about the threats facing the survivors in the new season, Appelbaum shared:
While the opened portals mean that just about anything from any time period could have passed through to 10,000 B.C., that doesn't mean dinosaurs are going to be the biggest threat for Gavin and Co. in the final batch of episodes. It does seem like the place that has always been at least somewhat inhospitable is going to be even more so when La Brea returns! David Appelbaum continued:
Of course, it's possible that plans for Season 3 shifted since I spoke with David Appelbaum in February, not least because of the WGA writers strike and SAG-AFTRA actors strike. Still, the blueprint was for new characters and new conflicts... without much word on what to expect for Eve.
Natalie Zea Will Appear In Less Of Season 3
While Eve was still alive when she was pulled through a portal at the end of Season 2, there was no guarantee of how her story would continue. Now, it appears that it won't continue very much on screen, as TVLine reports that the La Brea leading lady's presence in Season 3 will be seriously reduced from the first two. Considering that there are only six episodes, that likely means fans should prepare themselves for not too much of Natalie Zea as Eve before the final credits role.
According to the outlet, Natalie Zea filmed all of her Season 3 scenes in Los Angeles rather than returning to the set in Australia, and the first episode of the final season is expected to feature Gavin discovering a clue about his wife's whereabouts. If Zea was able to film in LA, perhaps that means that Eve returned at least close to the present day, and her family will be able to join her by the very end. At least, that's a best-case happy-ending scenario!
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For now, you can see just what La Brea looks like with less of its leading lady when Season 3 arrives on Tuesday, January 9 at 9 p.m. ET on NBC. It's one of the earliest major network TV shows to arrive in the new year, but won't last too long into 2024 with a six-episode order. At the time of writing, Natalie Zea has not commented on her role in Season 3.
Laura turned a lifelong love of television into a valid reason to write and think about TV on a daily basis. She's not a doctor, lawyer, or detective, but watches a lot of them in primetime. CinemaBlend's resident expert and interviewer for One Chicago, the galaxy far, far away, and a variety of other primetime television. Will not time travel and can cite multiple TV shows to explain why. She does, however, want to believe that she can sneak references to The X-Files into daily conversation (and author bios).