‘Catfish’ Season 3 Preview: MTV Show Will Take A Dark Turn [Spoilers]

Catfish is returning to MTV this week for its third season, but the show’s hosts say the upcoming season will be less romantic and more darker than viewers have ever seen before.

The reality show is a spinoff from the 2010 movie Catfish, which looked at the truth and lies of online dating. The reality-based docu-series took the same approach, looking at the level of dishonesty among people in online dating.

[WARNING: Catfish spoilers ahead]

But the third season of Catfish will delve into some much darker topics and more sinister lies, said host Nev Schulman.

“It’s not just the romantic catfish anymore,” Schulman told Buzzfeed.”It’s really about the many different ways people can, when they put their minds to it, manipulate and take advantage of other people in the real world using the Internet.”

There will be a lot more than just romance on the upcoming Catfish season, Schulman added. The show will be looking at other kinds of online con artists, including some who use fake identities not to attract potential lovers but instead hurt people and cause drama.

“These aren’t all romantic stories,” Schulman said. “In some of these instances, people have catfished an entire town. There’s also a lot more cyber-bullying this season as well, and people who are using catfish profiles for a lot of different motives, not just to seduce people and fall in love with people, but also to use them and to turn people against each other.”

Schulman added that this season will deal with a lot more tangible consequences of the catfishers. While most of the first two season have focused on romantic deception, Season 3 will show con artists who “get physical things to happen — people to go places, money to be sent. It’s not just the romantic catfish anymore.”

The third season of Catfish premieres Wednesday, May 7 at 10 pm EDT on MTV.