‘The Following’ S3: Shawn Ashmore & Kevin Bacon Preview Time Jump, New Threat

“The Following” returns for Season 3 on Monday night and Ryan Hardy and Mike Weston are (at least, temporarily) free from Joe Carroll-related troubles.

“We jump forward about a year, which is the same thing that happened between Season 1 and Season 2, and I think it’s kind of nice because it gives our characters sort of a year to settle into the events that have happened and we can pick up and sort of start fresh in a certain way,” Shawn Ashmore, who plays Mike, told Access Hollywood.

Joe (James Purefoy), the murderous cult leader and arch nemesis of Kevin Bacon’s Ryan Hardy, was taken into custody at the end of Season 2. And, he’s still behind bars as “The Following” returns.

WATCH: Shawn Ashmore & Kevin Bacon Tease ‘The Following’ Season 3

“He’s on death row. He’s been sentenced to death, so we will see him in jail. We don’t see him right away,” Kevin told Access. “A few episodes in, we’ll see him in jail, but a lot of the theme of this season is the idea of being haunted by the things of the past. … We all have things that have happened to us that have been tragic and all of us — including the two of us [Ryan and Mike] — have blood on our hands. We had a lot of people that we’ve killed and so Joe is haunting me in a really sort of deep way. I’m trying my best to keep him out of my life, but I can’t keep him out of my dreams.”

Keeping a close eye on Ryan is his new love Gwen, played by “Homeland’s” Zuleikha Robinson.

“I’m with the woman that I finally should be with and she looks at Joe as kind of like an ex-girlfriend that I keep talking about or keep obsessing on,” Kevin said.

Unlucky in love though is Shawn’s character Mike, who despite having a connection with Ryan’s niece Max (Jessica Stroup), isn’t about to join the Hardy family.

“Listen, I like to think that there’s always a possibility,” Shawn told Access. “But it isn’t to going to be as easy as we might have thought at the end of last season.”

Mark (Sam Underwood) is back in Season 3, and Shawn said viewers will likely find out who drove him (and Luke’s body) off in last year’s finale in the second episode. How Mark is dealing without his murderous twin will be explored, according to Kevin.

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“If you have a guy that is a psychopath and also is a twin and loses half of his persona in a way, who is he going to become without his brother and how’s that going to manifest itself? And that’s really interesting. It’s a pretty cool piece of this season,” he said.

In addition to the remaining twin, Shawn said there will be something new to tackle for Ryan and Mike.

“It’s a new threat and there’s a lot of stuff that’s thrown at us pretty quickly too. The sort of threats mount quickly in the third season,” he said.

Season 3 of “The Following” kicks off Monday at 9/8c on Fox.

Jolie Lash

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