‘This Is Us’: Details On Jack’s Death Confirmed For Season 2 Premiere
This Is Us fans will get some answers about the death of Jack Pearson very soon. Series star Mandy Moore has revealed that the This Is Us Season 2 premiere will offer a big revelation regarding the death of the Pearson family patriarch.
“The very first episode will offer a huge piece of the puzzle as to the big question that most people want to know, which is how Milo Ventimiglia’s character, Jack, the sort of patriarch of the family, passes away,” Moore told late night host Jimmy Kimmel, according to Entertainment Weekly.
“So you will know how a big piece of the puzzle is solved after the first episode.”
Moore’s statement echoes that of This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman. Last week, during an ArcLight Hollywood panel for the hit NBC drama, the This Is Us showrunner teased that the Season 2 premiere would finally shed light on some of the questions about Papa Pearson’s death.
“The first episode of the season holds not all the answers but a huge piece of the puzzle,” Fogelman told the panel. “But that’s not to say new questions won’t start being asked.”
Fogelman previously revealed that the story of Jack’s death will be strung out “over the course of the season.” The This Is Us showrunner told EW he has heard a lot of fan theories about how Papa Pearson passed away but said no one has come close to figuring out the character’s cause of death.
Here’s what This Is Us fans do know. Ventimiglia’s character is only seen in flashback scenes through the mid-1990s. He died sometime during his three kids’ teen years, and his wife, Rebecca (Mandy Moore) went on to marry his best friend, Miguel (Jon Huertas).
This Is Us star Milo Ventimiglia recently told reporters at the ATX TV Festival that knowing his This Is Us character doesn’t live to be an old man doesn’t change how he plays the role.
“Jack lives in the moment and that’s what I do in my life,” Ventimiglia said, according to Variety. “Jack really loves his wife and his kids. He sometimes makes bad decisions, but he lives in the moment.”
NBC Entertainment President Jennifer Salke teased that the second season of This Is Us could contain even more bombshells than the first season, which kicked off with a twist ending in the pilot episode.
“Dan (Fogelman) said this so I can say it,” Salke said at the ATX TV panel.
“Season two will be bigger than season one. It won’t get quieter. A lot happens. All good, just trust me.”
Salke also explained why This Is Us will remain on Tuesday nights on NBC instead of the previously announced plan to move the show to Thursday nights as part of a revamped Must See TV lineup for the network. While Salke admitted This Is Us fans would have followed the show to any night it landed on NBC’s schedule, once she heard Fogelman’s planned storylines, the network decided to keep the show in its original timeslot.
“The truth is, once Dan came in and laid out to me what he wanted to do with the second season, six episodes on Thursday night, we would’ve hit a wall with football on NBC so we would be off the air for two months because then you run into the Christmas holidays,” the NBC boss explained.
“So a two-month break, then the show coming back, we all looked at each other and said this is not in the best interest of the show. So we moved it back and we’re all thrilled with the decision. We have to do what’s right for a show that’s incredible and ground-breaking in every way. It would be a disservice to it to not treat it that way.”
This Is Us starts production for Season 2 on July 11 and returns to NBC in September.
[Featured Image by Dan Steinberg/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images]
