Mandy Moore Says ‘This Is Us’ Fans Will Worry About Jack Every Time They See The Big Three As Teens

Mandy Moore knows This Is Us writers gave viewers a big clue to the timing of her TV husband’s death on the most recent episode of the NBC drama, and now she thinks fans will “worry” every time they see the Big Three as teenagers.

The episode “Three Sentences” ended with a funeral scene that made it clear that patriarch Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia) died when his kids, Kevin, Kate and Randall, were teenagers. While the camera didn’t show the kids’ faces, teen actors Niles Fitch, Logan Shroyer and Hanna Zeile were shown from the side as they somberly attended the outdoor funeral service.

In case you need further confirmation, Shroyer, who plays teenaged Kevin Pearson on the show, posted a photo of himself on location for the scene at the Hollywood Forever cemetery.

Milo Ventimiglia told Entertainment Weekly he was surprised This Is Us producers showed the teen Pearson kids at the end of the funeral scene.

“When I read it, I didn’t know how it was going to be shot,” the This Is Us star told EW. “And I understood that it was all supposed to be cloaked in a little bit of mystery of when and how and why. I was surprised to see that they did reveal the age of the kids.”

But Mandy Moore says that she’s happy viewers have been given a little piece of the puzzle surrounding Jack’s death. Now, Moore hopes fans will be patient as they wait for more information on how the Pearson patriarch dies.

“I’m not sure people are prepared for this,” Mandy Moore said of the dreaded death reveal.

“I hope it at least satiates some of their need to know what, when, how, why with Jack. Obviously, that’s a question that is asked of us a lot, and I want people to be patient and almost forget about it. Yes, Jack is not alive in the present day, but other than that, he is very much alive in the show, and his spirit is here, even in present day.”

Mandy Moore hopes that the tidbit will “satiate people” for the time being and they will just let the story unfold without feeling pressure to know all of the details right away.

“That’s what my hope is,” Mandy Moore said. “People are like, ‘OK, they’re this age, great. Now let me just watch the show, and I’ll be worried anytime that time period’s happening.'”

Of course, that time period—presumably 1996 or 1997—could be coming again very soon. While we have only seen the teen Big Three in one other episode, “The Best Washing Machine in the World,” the teen This Is Us actors have been very busy in recent weeks.

In fact, Milo Ventimiglia just posted a new photo of himself on Twitter and he tagged his teen co-stars. Moore’s TV husband wrote that he was “feelin’ like Vincent Price tonight” while shooting a late night scene with Zeile, Shroyer and Fitch.

And just one week ago, Shroyer posted that he was “working late” with his TV siblings, so that means the teenaged Pearsons will be getting a lot more screen time in the second half of the This Is Us season.

But does that means Jack’s death will play out soon? Now that we know any episode that flashes back to the kids’ teen years could mean Jack’s demise is impending, viewers may not welcome the faces of the three young actors. Fans may want to take Mandy Moore’s advice and just try to forget about it for a while. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman teased it may be a while before the death reveal takes place.

“I’ve always known when Jack died,” Fogelman said. “The how is going to take much longer to reveal…There’s still — and there’s going to be for some time — a lot of unanswered questions. What was going on in their marriage whenever this happened? How did it happen? Those questions aren’t going to be answered for some time.”

“In terms of the detail of how he died, was it illness? Was it something tragic? Was it something else? You’re not going to know that for a little bit because we want to show that in the show. So that’s going to take a minute.”

Take a look at the This Is Us scene below to get a glimpse of the funeral scene.

You can see Mandy Moore and the rest of the cast on This Is Us, Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.

[Featured Image by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]