The star of “Mayor Of Kingstown” explains why the series offers so much excitement

Mayor of Kingstown Star Taylor Handley is excited about the big changes for his character in Season 3 of the hit Paramount+ series – especially because viewers finally get to meet a new member of the McLusky family.

“We’ve been waiting for baby Mitch to arrive since Season 1, so we’re really excited to welcome him,” Handley told me with a smile in a recent Zoom conversation.

Mayor of Kingstownis, of course, a hard-hitting crime drama in which Mike McLusky (Jeremy Renner) – Kingstown’s ad hoc “mayor” – has the intense task of keeping the peace between the inmates and guards behind Kingstown’s prison walls and the criminals and law enforcement outside.

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Handley plays the key role of Mike’s younger brother Kyle, who not only becomes a father in season 3, but also gives up his job as a detective at the Kingstown Police Department and becomes a member of the KPD’s SWAT team.

While the arrival of baby Mitch in Season 3 is a cause for celebration, the birth is also accompanied by deep sadness. At the end of Season 2, Kyle and Mike’s mother Mariam (Dianne Wiest) was seriously injured in a gun battle, and at the beginning of Season 3, we learn that she did not survive.

So Season 3 begins with Mariam’s funeral, but the McLusky brothers can’t even grieve properly when a bomb explodes at their mother’s funeral. It’s a haunting reminder that Kingstown remains a dangerous, if not deadly, place for everyone – especially members of the McLusky family.

Handley said that was the dark cloud hanging over Mayor of Kingstown since the series’ pilot episode in 2021, which featured the shocking execution of Mitch (Kyle Chandler), the eldest McLusky brother and Mike’s predecessor as mayor. The unexpected death provided the thrilling template for the series, and Handley loves how the series’ co-creators are committed to keeping viewers on their toes with each episode.

“What Taylor Sheridan and Hugh Dillon did in the first episode of this series was so brilliant because they had Kyle Chandler – America’s sweetheart – and then killed him off in the middle of the first episode,” Handley said. “Personally, I thought it was a fantastic artistic decision because it showed that no one is safe in Kingstown.”

This of course means that Handley’s character could die at any time in Mayor of KingstownBut since the show has already lost Mitch and Mariam, Handley hopes Kyle’s life will be spared.

“How many more members of Mike’s family can they kill?” Handley asked with cautious optimism. “I feel pretty good.”

Handley says Renner didn’t miss anything when he returned to Kingstown

While the cliffhanger ending of the second season of Mayor of Kingstown had made it clear to viewers that more episodes of the series would follow, those plans were completely thrown into disarray by Jeremy Renner’s near-fatal snowplow accident on New Year’s Day 2023.

Like Renner’s colleagues and crew members, Taylor Handley only hoped that his on-screen brother would recover. Therefore, Handley was surprised not only by Renner’s quick recovery, but also by his sheer determination to Mayor of Kingstown Season 3 becomes reality.

“We were so touched and so grateful that he made it this way,” Handley said. “And not only that, he’s outstanding.”

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What really upset Handley, however, was the way Renner arrived on the set of Mayor of Kingstown so soon after his accident, as if nothing had happened.

“Let’s just talk about the timing here. It was almost a year to the day after his accident that he was back on set. A year after such an insane accident that broke over 30 bones in his body,” Handley said.

“I’ve gotten to know Jeremy really well over the seasons and honestly I’m not surprised how he’s come back,” Handley added. “Just the way he carries himself and the people around him, his attitude and his work ethic – he’s a fighter and a machine. It didn’t surprise me that he came back even stronger than before.”

Mayor of Kingstown Episode 8 will air on Sundays on Paramount+, with new episodes of the third season premiering every Sunday through August 4.

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