This Is Us Season 3 Is Bringing Jack Back in an Important Way

Filming has already begun on season three of This Is Us, and we’re already chomping at the bit for new information. We were left with some pretty major cliffhangers at the end of season two, including time jumps into the future for Kate, Randall and Kevin. While we’re excited to hear more about those jumps, it looks like series creator Dan Fogelman is more interested in teasing the time jumps into the past — Jack’s past, that is.

More: The First This Is Us Season 3 Picture Is Here, & It’s All About Randall & Beth

Speaking to Deadline on Thursday, Fogelman opened up about how This Is Us will finally focus on Jack’s time serving during the Vietnam War. It’s a time period we’ve only visited briefly in past seasons, with the most notable flashbacks including Jack talking to a teenage Randall about his time in the military and the reveal that Jack and his little brother went overseas together. Now, we expect season three to go even deeper.

Fogelman hints that there will be at least one episode devoted entirely to Jack’s experiences in Vietnam, and that episode was written by an expert on the subject. “One of my writing heroes, Tim O’Brien — who wrote The Things They Carried and many other novels — [contributed to this season of This Is Us]. I just finished actually writing an episode with him that’s an entire Vietnam Jack backstory episode, early in our season. That’s going to be really incredibly exciting and unusual,” Fogelman explained.

At least one episode devoted entirely to Jack could open up the door to even more exciting new arcs (and it means we get to see more of Milo Ventimiglia, which is never a bad thing). It could also reveal the mysterious fate of Jack’s younger brother, who we have yet to see in the present day. 

But Jack isn’t the only man getting a more in-depth story arc on season three. As Fogelman explained, this season will see Miguel stepping more into the spotlight and getting a more sympathetic role in the wake of Jack’s death. 

“We’re going to dive deeper into that this season and begin this long play of making people actually start rooting for Miguel in a serious way, which I think will be really exciting when we pull it off,” he said.

More: A Tribute to This Is Us’ Jack Pearson on Father’s Day

More Jack and Miguel in season three can only mean one thing: This season is going to be so, so good. Be sure clear out some time in your schedule for the return of This Is Us to NBC on Tuesday, Sept. 25.