One of the first times people heard that Jay Ellis might not be returning to the third season of “Insecure” to resume his role of Lawrence was when he made a statement on “The Angie Martinez” show, “I’m a little bit out of it. They’ve been filming for the last six or seven weeks [without me] or something like that.”
Fans have expressed sadness, which the show’s star and creator Issa Rae addressed.
At the end of season two, Lawrence and Rae’s character seemed to put an end to their relationship for good.
“No, I don’t care,” said Rae about viewers being unhappy that Ellis won’t be in season 3. “We want to stay as true to life as possible. They had a great conversation at the end of season two and it was just about like, hey, she’s moving on … Sometimes we have those conversations. You never see the exes again and it’s okay. You gotta explore life without Lawrence.”
“Insecure’s” showrunner Prentice Penny agreed and said at first the writers tried to build story lines around Lawrence, but it seemed forced so they made the decision to leave him out entirely.
“At the end of the day, we’re always trying to tell stories that are true and authentic,” he explained. “We were in the writer’s room, and we were initially talking about, ‘Okay, well what is he doing?… Well, he’s not in her life right now.’ It was hard to make stories around that.”
“We just said, well, if he’s not around, he’s not around,” added Prentice. “Let’s just deal with the reality of what her life is now. Let’s be true to that when you break up and you have closure.”
Penny also said the character of Daniel, played by Y’Ian Noel, will have a much bigger presence in the third season and viewers will also see Issa and her crew being forced to make adult decisions.
In other words, some of the characters will be forced to separate their wants from their needs and make smarter decisions as a result.
The third season will also show Issa explore the dating scene and spend time with a lot of different men.
“It was also, like, where is Issa in her life right now? What would challenge that?” said Penny. “And you’ll see lots of people who are her love interest… come in and out. And there won’t just be one new guy but a few … I think people will be rooting for her like they kind of always do, to make the right choice.”
