“Jane the Virgin” returns for a third season on The CW with one big question looming: Is Michael dead or alive?
Showrunner Jennie Urman naturally refused to disclose that spoiler during a Q&A with reporters, but she stressed that the premiere episode will uphold the dramedy’s signature balance between comedy and drama, even as it grapples with Michael’s (Brett Dier) fate.
“The juxtaposition between the past and present, learning how they met and where they are now, there are some surprises in there,” Urman teased of the Jane and Michael saga. “It’s a heavy episode but I think we manage to get lightness into it.”
Below, Urman previews more of what’s to come this season on “Jane the Virgin.”
Not Jane’s first love triangle
While she’s been torn between new husband Michael and baby daddy Rafael (Justin Baldoni) for the bulk of the show’s run thus far, this is not Jane’s (Gina Rodriguez) first go at a love triangle, as we’ll learn in flashbacks during the premiere.
“You meet somebody from her past,” Urman teased. “Michael had a lot of competition for her affections.”
The showrunner also said there’s a chance we’ll see Jane’s old love, Sam, again in the future.
Sin Rostro is still out there
The drug lord and serial killer who’s plagued Jane and her friends and family is still at large, now with Rafael’s sister Luisa (Yara Martinez) in tow. And we’ve definitely not seen the last of them.
“They are still trying to find Sin Rostro (Bridget Regan),” Urman said. “There will be another event that happens, but we’re spending a lot of the first, I would say, 10 [episodes] with them following up on the things we left hanging at the end of the season.”
Jane the virgin?
The loss of Jane’s virginity is imminent, Urman teased. And they already know how they’ll play with the show’s title if and when that happens.
“It’ll always say ‘Jane the Virgin,’ and there will be a line through ‘Virgin,’” the showrunner said. “And depending on what we’re putting on top of [that episode], that might say, ‘Jane the Guilty Catholic’ or ‘Jane the Person Who Doesn’t Like Her Mom’s New Boyfriend.’ It’s a way of saying people are so much more than sex. So, she is a person with so many different identities and so many different things that make her character interesting and a person. So once we get rid of the virgin thing, we can just open it up to other things that define her.”
Urman also defended the decision to preserve Jane’s virginity through the show’s first three seasons — even after a baby and marriage.
“You don’t want it too quickly gone, because there is a lot of comedy to be done,” she said. “I wanted her to be a married virgin; those kinds of things we wanted to play with as much as possible. We wanted to squeeze all the comedy out of it, because once it’s gone, it’s gone.”
Introducing the narrator
Urman has teased before that the show’s ubiquitous and breakout character — the faceless narrator (Anthony Mendez) — is a real character with a connection to Jane. But we won’t find out who he is anytime soon.
“At the end of the series you’ll find out who the narrator is,” she said. “There is a definite relationship. You learn little bits about the narrator, but it depends on what you’re listening for. Hints are in there. We try to bury them, they’re not real obvious!”
“Jane the Virgin” airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on The CW.