It’s quite possible that Will’s true love will show up next season.
Summary
Will and Angie’s romance happens on and off and is built only on trauma.
Meanwhile, the Karin Slaughter novels feature a character who is the title character’s true love.
The showrunners are considering including her in the upcoming season.
Unfortunately, Will Trent Season 3 will not be released until early next year. Until then, all we can do is binge all the episodes on Hulu and read the equally fascinating novel series by Karin Slaughter. And if you’re already familiar with the source material, you probably know that the writers have made a few departures from the books’ plot, putting more emphasis on the twisted romantic dynamic between Ramón Rodríguez’s Will and Erika Christensen’s Angie Polaski.
Meanwhile, in the novels, Trent’s primary romantic interest is not Angie, but a character named Sara Linton. But will there be such a major character in Season 3? Will Trent’s co-showrunner weighs in.
Who Is Sara Linton in the Will Trent Novels?
While we hope that Angie doesn’t lose her position at APD, we still expect that she and Will won’t be the end game. After all, the only thing holding them together is their past traumas, and Karin Slaughter herself has given Trent a more wholesome love interest that will create an exciting dynamic.
Sara Linton first appeared in the Will Trent series in the 2009 novel Undone and was a part of the story up until the most recent novel, After That Night. However, Sara is originally a protagonist of the Grant County series, making her debut in 2001’s Blindsighted.
Sara is a pediatrician who works part-time as a coroner. She has a raw wit and emotional intelligence, as well as a huge baggage of trauma, as much as any of Slaughter’s characters. Still, Trent will have a much healthier relationship with her than he did with Angie, though it will take them both a while to realize it.
Will Sarah Appear in Season 3?
Apparently, Linton’s appearance in the series is not out of the question and her presence is already on the radar. However, it is not yet known if she will appear in Season 3 or later, as the writers are currently thinking about how to incorporate her into the storyline. This was confirmed by co-showrunners Liz Heldens and Daniel Thomsen. According to Heldens, now might not be the best time.
‘I think that the door is open for someone new to come into his life. We have to talk about it, and we have to talk about it with ABC — like, there’s a logistical question here: Do we want to bring in the endgame now? Or is it interesting to find somebody [else for now]? We have to be careful about that. We have to be careful about what that does to the ecosystem of the show. We need to be thoughtful about that.’
Thomsen, for his part, noted that they want to give Sara a much deeper arc than trivializing her as Will’s new romantic interest.
‘There are two things to consider, one is that Sara Linton is a great character for television, right? So to just have her come into our show in a moment where Will needs a romantic interest, I feel like both [Liz and I] spend time chewing on this idea that maybe there is a bigger role for Sara. But also, we both kind of know that she’s the endgame for Will in the books. At this point in Will’s life, I don’t know if he’s ready for that, and there are so many opportunities for exploration in other directions.’
Well, hopefully if Sarah Linton shows up as early as next season, her arc will indeed be profound. Will Trent Season 3 is scheduled for release in January 2025.
