What is it that everyone is looking at up in the sky in the just-released teaser trailer for The Leftovers’ third and final season? Across the 30-second clip, we see the faces of many familiar characters — Justin Theroux’s vision-beleaguered suburban dad, Carrie Coon’s absence-beleaguered mom, Christopher Eccleston’s bad-luck-beleaguered priest, Amy Brenneman’s existentially beleaguered (well, fine, this speaks to everyone) lapsed cult-member, and Jasmin Savoy Brown’s seemingly-less-beleaguered (albeit missing for most of a season) teen — all looking up in the sky at something. And since this is a show where all are somewhat beleaguered by the sudden inexplicable disappearance of 2% of the world’s population, surely whatever they’re looking at is a. weird, and b. emotionally complicated. Is it the writing in the clouds, spelling out “The end is near?” Or is it something else? Will we finally learn whether or not all the leftovers will end up in the great Tupperware in the sky?
Along with the trailer comes the announcement of the premiere date for the season — Sunday, April 16. Which, fittingly, happens to be Easter. In December, Entertainment Weekly spoke with creator Damon Lindelof about the upcoming season, which takes place in Australia. (The first season was set in upstate New York, and the second was set in a miraculous town called Jarden, TX.) He explained to the publication:
Australia is the end of the world geographically and our show is about the end-of-the-world emotionally. And there’s also something about Australian cinema — it’s primal, ancient and spiritual — that felt like it fit The Leftovers, whether it’s Mad Max movies or Walkabout, or Waking Fright or Peter Weir movies.
He also drew parallels to The Godfather, as far as the season’s narrative surrounding Theroux’s Kevin Garvey and his father goes:
Marlon Brando keeps telling his son Michael, ‘I don’t want this business for you,’ but every time the sh– hits the fan, Michael is in the room. So Senior is mixed up in something and pulls Kevin into it.
Watch the teaser: