For the actors, it was tough to draw any information because they all admitted they had not received any scripts yet. You see, Bates Motel season 3 doesn’t begin shooting until October in Vancouver. Writers-producers Carlton Cuse and Kerry Ehrin, however, were a bit easier to get intel from.
They couldn’t answer any questions about how Bradley and Caleb would play a part in season 3 (both characters are coming back), but they did say they’re shooting in October to capture a certain gloomy atmosphere. Also, a bunch of new characters are being introduced, said Cuse (no cast has been locked in for these roles). There will be more romance for Emma in the form of a new friend.
Here’s what Cuse and Ehrin had to say:
Carlton Cuse: The cast is very much in the dark, purposely. There’s a very short time jump. At the end of season 2, all of the players in the two drug families in town were either killed by our guys or killed each other. There’s this big vacuum in town and the question now is: What happens? That kind of event with that sort of magnitude of murder can’t be covered. In a town where evil has been tolerated, can that vacuum exist without other evil coming into town and filling it? That is sort of the starting point for what happens in the town. There are some real consequences for our characters. Dylan gets offered this job by Romero at the end last season. Will he take that and become the drug czar in town and what will be the result of that? We have some cool guests in the Bates Motel. We have this franchise which is the Bates Motel and we’ve hardly done anything with it. We’re doing more and there are some good storylines with the people who show up at the motel.
Kerry Ehrin: Norman and Norma are on the ongoing tangled road of their fantastic, dark, misunderstood relationship. Norma – a veil got lifted at the end of last season and they both saw some things. While Norman was absolved by the lie detector test. The knowledge of those things are still alive that affects the relationship. Now there’s a knowledge and how is that going to splinter them? The psychological mind games is interesting. There’s also a slow awareness in Norman, because he’s growing up, he’s not like everyone else. If he tries to have a relationship with a girl, it’s going to feel a little different than a typical teenage boy. This growing understanding between both of them is lurking and how this is going to come out and play is a huge part of the storytelling.
