'black-ish' Season 3 Has A Big Surprise In Store

The second season of black-ish marked an uptick from a generally good network comedy to one of TV's best half-hours, which means that the third season premiere on Sept. 21 is pretty exciting. In advance of the black-ish premiere, Bustle spoke to Marcus Scribner, who plays Andre Jr. on the show, and he was able to hint at what will happen in black-ish Season 3 this year, from who will be appearing on the show to whether or not those Emmy nominations (sadly, the show walked away without any trophies on the Sept. 18 ceremony) affected anything about the show's approach.

As it turns out, Scribner says that even though the show has reached a new level of success in the last year, its philosophy hasn't changed. "I think for Season 3 we’re really going to stay true to our roots," he says. "Because I feel like that’s what we do pretty good at black-ish, we make sure to have serious and important topics and at the same time add flashes of comedy and funny jokes so that it’s really digestible."

So that means viewers can expect the show to "keep it real," as Scribner puts it. The biggest topic broached in Season 2 was during the episode "Hope," which took on the topics of police brutality and what it's like to be black in America and garnered a huge reaction on social media. "I think that was the goal of the entire episode, was to start a conversation," Scribner explains.

But the biggest thing going for black-ish Season 3 can be boiled down to one word: Hamilton. Scribner jokingly calls the news that Tony-winning star of the musical Daveed Diggs would be guest starring as Rainbow's brother in several Season 3 episodes "one of the most exciting things that has ever happened to me." Diggs is just the latest of the many people who have guest-starred on the series, and making him Bow's brother leaves the door open for more appearances, which should be very exciting for Hamilton fans (aka: everyone).

In addition to new guest characters, Scribner says that the black-ish kids may have a few changes this year, and that you can "expect a few changes in aspects of our personalities," as they continue to grow with the actors. Those changes might also stem from the new family member who will be joining the series in Season 3 — at the end of Season 2, Bow and Dre found out that they're expecting another baby.

But, at the end of the day, nothing can really beat Diggs' guest spot. "I mean… come on, you can’t get better than that, it’s crazy," Scribner says. Between that and everything else the show is planning to tackle, you'll definitely want to tune into Season 3 starting Wednesday, Sept. 21.

Image: ABC; Giphy (2)