This Is Us fans will be happy to know that William Hill isn’t going anywhere. The beloved character, played by Ron Cephas Jones, may have died during the NBC drama’s first season, in the episode “Memphis,” but he lives on thanks to the show’s flashback format.
While This Is U s fans may have thought they knew the dynamic of William’s relationship with son Randall’s (Sterling K. Brown) adoptive mom, Rebecca Pearson (Mandy Moore), a new photo shows that there could be a whole lot more to their story.
This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman posted a very cryptic photo of William from the show’s upcoming third season. The photo shows William holding a baby — and it’s definitely not newborn Randall from 1980. Fogelman captioned the pic, “Season 3. Brace yourself.”
This Is Us fans know that in the scenes filmed when Randall was a baby abandoned a fire station, the William character was played by Jermal Nakia. Rebecca Pearson secretly kept in contact with William throughout the years, despite the fact that she kept Randall away from his biological father. But years later when she learned William was sober, she contemplated letting him meet 8-year-old Randall (Lonnie Chavis). The “older” William was played by Ron Cephas Jones in those scenes, which means the baby is in the new picture came after Randall was born, somewhere between the late 1980s and William’s death in 2017.
This Is Us fans posted to Twitter to speculate that Rebecca went so far as to introduce William to one of his granddaughters early on and that the baby in the pic could be one of Randall’s daughters, Tess or Annie.
Season 3. Brace yourselves. #ThisIsUs pic.twitter.com/5Yx5j29eUV
— Dan Fogelman (@Dan_Fogelman) August 17, 2018
Other This Is Us fans are speculating that William may have fathered another child later in life, which means Randall could have an unknown biological sibling. And of course, this is This Is Us , which means this photo could also be part of a dream sequence. No matter what the story is, it’s clear that Ron Cephas Jones will be part of some sort of twist in Season 3.
Ron Cephas Jones has been nominated for two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his performance as William on This Is Us , but earlier this year Deadline reported that he will take on a smaller role on the hit NBC series as he joins Apple’s new 10-part series, Are You Sleeping , which comes from Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine company.
This Is Us returns to NBC on Tuesday, September 25.
