“Yep,” Dan Fogelman is going there.
On Thursday, the “This Is Us” creator and co-showrunner tweeted a video that gave fans their first look at Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia) wearing his military garb and holding a gun while riding in a chopper, teasing the family patriarch’s time in the Vietnam War.
Viewers knew this storyline was coming, but that doesn’t mean the scenes will be any easier to swallow when the NBC drama returns next month. After all, while Jack won’t meet his maker until years after the war (thanks to that slow cooker), his baby brother Nicky doesn’t fare as well.
Co-showrunner Isaac Aptaker said during the Television Critics Association press tour earlier this month that Jack and Nicky’s story during the Vietnam War was going to be a big part of the next installment in the Pearsons’ tale.
“I can’t tell you who we’ve cast to play Nicky just yet — but, yes, we are going to be spending a lot of our time in Vietnam,” Aptaker said when asked who is playing the latest addition to the fam. Well, now we know it’s “I’m Dying Up Here” star Michael Angarano taking on the recurring role for the flashback stories, which co-showrunner Elizabeth Berger says is “very exciting.”
“There is something very freeing about getting past Jack’s death and getting to tell just a whole completely different kind of story,” Berger said during the press tour. “It’s sort of different than anything our writers have done in the first two years, so to be all of a sudden be immersed in the Vietnam War, we think it’s going to be really special and really different.”
Jack’s baby bro was first introduced in a flashback sequence when the siblings were still children. We’ve gotten just a tiny glimpse of adult Nicky in a snapshot where he’s standing next to Jack in Vietnam, as we learned that was where he met an untimely end.
The series will be diving into the ‘Nam storyline in the present day too, as the Season 2 finale showed Kevin (Justin Hartley) looking at the photo of his father and late uncle while on a flight to the country with his girlfriend Zoe, obviously to learn more about Jack’s past.
See the video below.
“This Is Us” Season 3 premieres Tuesday, Sept. 25 at 9/8c on NBC.
Yep. #ThisIsUs pic.twitter.com/Ri8jAt1zFJ
— Dan Fogelman (@Dan_Fogelman) August 30, 2018