This Is Us season 2: Ron Cephas Jones will continue to play William
If fans recall William, Randall’s biological father, passed away toward the end of Season 1 in an emotional and tear-filled episode. However, according to Entertainment Weekly, EP Dan Fogelman has confirmed that fans will see both the younger William (played by Jermal Nakia) and the older William in a number of different ways:
“He’s going to play a very big part of our story, both as young William and older William.”
Fogelman also tells fans that he will be used in a similar way that Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) is used. In the present, Jack appears in flashbacks as well as hallucinations and dreams to show his impact on Randall (Sterling K. Brown) and the rest of his family. Fogelman explains this a little further:
“There might be a conversation that a character might have a him, imagining him there. But he’s not only going to exist as a ghost. We’re also going to go into his previous stories – things we didn’t know about him and didn’t see – so very much the way that Jack lives in the show, even though we know he’s already gone, is very much the way William can.”
Someone who is just as excited to learn he will continue to play William is Jones, who wondered if he would be apart of the show after the character’s death:
“I have all the scenarios that all the fans have, or you might imagine. It could go so many different ways. There’s a chunk of his life that we haven’t explored. There’s those moments where Randall has dreams. There are moments where they just do raw flashbacks to build story. They’ve been so creative over there, the writers and Dan have been so ingenious, there’s no telling what he’s been cooking up in the lab this time around, you know? But I imagine and I’m sure it’s going to be more of that and even better, so I’m excited about it.”
One thing that remains in question is will William’s ghost play the biggest part in Randall’s daughters’ lives. The newly released Season 2 poster (view here) featured him with Tess and Annie and not Randall. The show could have featured William with Randall, Beth, and the girls, but it didn’t. Pictures on a television poster are chosen for a specific reason so having William with the girls should be an indicator that he will play a part in their lives.
This Is Us returns to NBC on September 26, 2017.
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This story was written by Samantha D’Amico. If you want to follow her on Twitter, you can do so at @SAM_iamXO.