‘This Is Us’ Star Justin Hartley Teases Kevin’s Romantic Future—and Future-Set Storylines—For Season 3

This Is Us will begin production on the show’s third season this summer, but series star Justin Hartley is already ready to get back to work. Hartley told the Today show’s Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford that the upcoming third season of the NBC drama will be the show’s biggest one yet. Justin went so far as to say that Season 3 will be bigger than the first two seasons combined, so fans should prepare for plenty more bombshells for the Pearsons.

While the This Is Us cast is sworn to secrecy regarding specific storylines, Justin Hartley dropped some teasers regarding his character, Kevin Pearson’s, future—and the possibility of seeing an aging Kevin in a future-set storyline.

In an interview with the Huffington Post, Hartley said Kevin’s addiction recovery and new romance with Beth’s cousin Zoe (Melanie Liburd) will continue into Season 3. Justin said he was excited about Kevin’s new chapter with a woman who, unlike his childhood sweetheart Sophie (Alexandra Breckenridge), doesn’t know everything about his past. Hartley told HuffPo the following.

“I think it’s good for Kevin moving forward to find someone new that maybe doesn’t know so much about him. To discover new things about himself via someone new. So, I’m really excited about that and I think he’s on this journey in trying to find out more about his father and also having a self-discovery chapter as well. I’m sure we can go pretty deep with all of that stuff. He’s a pretty complex character.”

The This Is Us Season 2 finale showed Kevin and his new girlfriend Zoe on a plane headed to Vietnam, presumably to unearth some secrets about his late father Jack’s (Milo Ventimiglia) past as a war veteran.

As for that other buzzy cliffhanger—the future-set scene with Randall (Sterling K. Brown) as a 50-something man—Hartley hopes he will also get to play his character as an older man. Hartley said this of his character.

“I hope that he ages as well as Randall! I would like to see where he is as an older man, what he’s got going on. Does he have kids? Does he get remarried? How many times has he been remarried? Does he find Sophie again? Do they never talk again? Does he have twins? Who knows? I’m really curious to know where this guy ends up.”

It’s likely that This Is Us viewers will get to see an older Kevin at some point. Sterling K. Brown previously revealed that the future-set scene between Randall and his adult daughter Tess (Iantha Richardson) holds a clue to the eventual ending of the NBC drama series.

“When you see that flash-forward to the future, it will ultimately help to illuminate what the end of our story will be,” Brown told Entertainment Weekly.

That means at some point viewers will probably see Kevin and all of the This Is Us characters in scenes set in the future—if they are still alive, that is.

This Is Us returns to NBC this fall.