Will Trent is currently on hiatus following its fairly depressing Season 2 finale, and it won't be back before the end of the 2024 TV schedule like most other returning ABC dramas. There is some exciting news worth discussing even as the wait for Season 3 continues, as the drama has officially cast another ABC alum to join Will and Co. Fans, prepare to welcome Not Dead Yet's Gina Rodriguez to Will Trent! And if you're anything like me, you should also prepare to start crossing your fingers that her character escapes a certain fate.
Gina Rodriguez – who is not related to Will Trent star Ramón Rodriguez – is on board the third season to play a new Assistant District Attorney by the name of Marion Alba, according to Deadline. The character is new to Atlanta and the dynamic with Will won't get off to the strongest start, but they'll have to work together when it comes to a crime in the Atlanta gang world.
Now, none of the available details about Marion Alba indicate that she's joining the show as a potential new love interest, but it's hard not to wonder after how Season 2 ended. In the second season finale, Will's realization that Angie could have prevented a serial killing spree forced him to make a hard choice, which led him to arrest the woman he loved.
He then seemingly left the GBI and his former life behind, with the fact that he even left Betty as a sign of how serious the situation was. Of course, the TV show called Will Trent wasn't going to proceed without Will Trent when it had been renewed for a third season, but it remains to be seen how the show brings him back to the job. If there's enough of a time jump that he's semi-okay with Angie's fate, then I could see some sparks flying between Ramón Rodriguez's and Gina Rodriguez's characters.
And hopefully, those sparks will not quite be like the ones that flew between Ramón Rodriguez's Will and Susan Kelechi's Agent Cricket Dawson at the start of Season 2. Like Clark Gregg as guest star, Watson's casting was announced ahead of the season, and the fact that Will Trent was bringing in a venerable This Is Us alum led me at least to think that perhaps Cricket could recur.
Instead, Cricket was killed off in an explosion at the end of the Season 2 premiere, which was a shocker and proof that the flirting between her and Will wasn't going to go anywhere. Sure, Will Trent's big romance is between Will and Angie, but the man could have had a nice temporary relationship without traumatic strings attached with a great actress in the role, right?
Evidently not in Season 2, but I'm hoping that maybe Will can at least try a different romance when the third season kicks off. Gina Rodriguez is billed as a series regular, so it's probably safe to assume that she won't be killed off before the end of the premiere like Susan Kelechi Watson's character was. My fingers are officially crossed!
Will Trent will return to ABC's lineup in midseason of the 2024-2025 TV schedule, which usually means as early as January or as late as April. In the meantime, you can revisit both seasons of the show so far streaming with a Hulu subscription.
