‘Leverage: Redemption’ Stars Tease Season 3 Journeys as Hardison Questions What They Do

“All the characters are growing, but every time you grow, you have to deal with the consequences of that,” executive producer Dean Devlin says of Leverage: Redemption Season 3.

The Prime Video series returns with the first three episodes of the new season on Thursday, April 17, and the crew — Gina Bellman as grifter Sophie Deveraux, Christian Kane as hitter Eliot Spencer, Beth Riesgraf as thief Parker, Aleyse Shannon as maker Breanna Casey, Noah Wyle as fixer Harry Wilson, and Aldis Hodge as hacker Alec Hardison — has a lot on its plate (including a power broker stealing the clean water under people’s feet, a mayor who’s literally the judge and jury of his small town, a mark who’s finally caught up with them mid-con, a pool hustler with a side business in international extortion, and an industrialist exploiting child labor). And as the trailer shows, Hardison is beginning to question their work. “I don’t want to do this anymore,” he says.

“This family clearly has grown tight. They love each other, they care about each other, but they all continue to grow as individuals and sometimes those directions are not aligned. And so we really wanted to explore what happens when people who really love and care about each other start to grow into different directions,” Devlin tells TV Insider.

Parker does understand how he feels, with Riesgraf noting the impact that she knows Hardison can have elsewhere. “It makes her have to reflect on something she hasn’t really thought about. She was just happy and content where she was. In that, she starts to have to make some choices and she puts herself in a situation to see what she’ll actually do. She really doesn’t know,” she teases.

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According to Devlin, Parker will be “exploring parts of herself that she’s repressed for a long time and she’s questioning whether she’s suppressed it for the right reasons or the wrong reasons. She’s going to go to some places this season that we haven’t seen her go before.”

The good news? While being long distance is hard, Riesgraf assures us that Parker and Hardison’s relationship is strong. “They’re not going anywhere. They’re not abandoning each other, but I think the physical distance is tough,” she says. “Parker and Hardison are always going to be pretzels, right? They’re connected. They’re one unit in that way, and that’ll never change.”

Adds Devlin, “This is the first time he’s expressing having some conflicting feelings about the work they do. And he is not yet ready to articulate exactly what he’d prefer, but he knows he needs to be on some kind of vision quest to figure out how he’s feeling, and that’s inherently threatening. But luckily, their relationship and their love is so deep and strong that they have faith and trust in each other to explore these things honestly. But that doesn’t make it any less difficult.”

The rest of the team has other things in their lives to consider. For example, Sophie has reconnected with her stepdaughter, Astrid (Alexandra Park), who works for Interpol tracking down people like the crew (she and Parker are nemeses). And after reconciling her past last season, she’s a much more light-hearted Sophie now.

“She’s very chill and relaxed, and it is quite kind of comedic. How is she going to have a relationship with this daughter who works for Interpol when she’s this criminal? There’s a really charming scene with me and Hardison where I’m like, ‘What present can I get her?’ And he’s like, ‘Well, don’t give her anything stolen,'” Bellman previews. “I think there’s a lot of charm in how she evolves this season and dipping her toe in the dating pool and wanting to see if she can be flirty, if she can let somebody into her life, if she can be authentic outside of this crew, which she’s never really done before.”

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Also working on a relationship with a family member is Eliot, with his previously estranged father (Keith David guest starred in Season 2). Kane agrees that fixing that relationship is the closest to redemption his character feels he can get.

“What I’m most proud of is that Keith David played my father and the way he did as well because you see now where his toughness comes from, where his mind comes from, his upbringing, and stuff like that. You understand a little bit more about Eliot than you did before,” says Kane. “At the same time, there’s not a lot of redemption for Eliot when it comes to the stuff he’s done in his past, though he has softened a little.” As a result, for Eliot, it’s about making sure no one on the team gets too hurt but allowing them to make their own choices.

Breanna’s the youngest member of the team, and she’s really coming into her own. “She’s stepping out and proving herself” in Season 3, Shannon says. “She’s getting her chances and she’s learning the job and the way to tackle these villains in a way that’s more of a lifestyle and less of a homework assignment. And so we see her, on one hand, getting more confident and feeling more capable, but on the other hand, a little frustrated with the fact that these villains keep evolving in a way that they’ll always be playing a game of catch-up.”

The first season of the Leverage follow-up series was about redemption for “evil lawyer” Harry, and now, his journey is the fallout of his past, as well as “dealing with his mother and dealing with his daughter and resolving those issues and dealing with the fact that he’s kind of accepted the fact that he’s going to be a thief for the rest of his life,” Devlin teases.

While Wyle was in the writing room for The Pitt (on which he also stars and serves as an executive producer) while filming this season of Leverage: Redemption, Devlin reveals that while “we lost him a little bit, he’s in a lot of the episodes.”

What are you hoping to see this season? Let us know in the comments section below.

Leverage: Redemption, Season 3 Premiere (three episodes), Thursday, April 17, Prime Video