Like it or not, there are a lot of changes coming to Insecureseason 3, and the latest revelation will have those in the #LawrenceHive a little upset. According to Vulture, there’s a pretty good chance Jay Ellis won’t appear at all in the third season.
Issa Rae and showrunner Prentice Penny explained this move as keeping things realistic between Issa and Lawrence, who ended the second season saying goodbye after Lawrence discovered Issa's continued romance with Daniel, played by Y’lan Noel.
“We want to stay as true to life as possible. They had a great conversation at the end of season 2 and it was just about like, hey, she’s moving on Daniel, sometimes we have those conversations,” Rae told Vulture. “You never see the exes again. And it’s okay! You gotta explore life without Lawrence.”
Considering Ellis hasn’t appeared in any season 3 trailers, and that those trailers are dominated by Issa’s new awkward roommate situation with Daniel, it’s pretty clear Lawrence is not coming back.
“At the end of the day, we’re always trying to tell stories that are true and authentic. We were in the writers 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,” Penny said. For now, it seems the relationship between these former lovebirds is definitely a thing of the past. “We just said, well, if he’s not around, he’s not around. Let’s just deal with the reality of what her life is now. Let’s be true to that, when you breakup and you have closure.”
Back in April, Ellis revealed he had not shot any scenes for the upcoming season. "I don't know if there is a relationship," he said. "There was closure at the end. There was like full closure."
Lawrence’s absence makes room for one or more potential love interests. Penny teased that there will be some choices involved in Issa’s pending hoetation, so we’ll just have to wait and see if she makes the right one.
“It was also like, well where is Issa in her life right now? What would challenge that? And you’ll see lots of people who are her love interest kind of come in and out,” Penny said. “I think people will be rooting for her like they kind of always do, to make the right choice.”
Insecure season 3 airs on HBO on August 12.
