[This story contains spoilers from the Mayor of Kingstown season three finale.]
When planning what's next, sometimes you have to wrap up an entire storyline. Even if it's one that's served the series well.
This is what Mayor of Kingstown co-creator Hugh Dillon, along with co-creator Taylor Sheridan, did in the recent third season finale of the Paramount+ series about peacemaker/fixer Mike McLusky (Jeremy Renner) who runs a fictional prison-industrial city.
For three seasons, McLusky’s toughest nemesis has been the Russian mob, which has infiltrated the fictional Michigan border town with drugs, guns and sex trafficking. He’s had to battle two of the most ruthless and violent Russian mob bosses, Milo Sunter (Aidan Gillen) and Konstantin Noskov (Yorick van Wageningen), and protect a young sex-trafficked woman known as Iris (Emma Laird), whom the brutal Russian mob has labeled a broken angel.
But by the end of the season three finale, all those characters from the Russian mob story arc that McLusky hated (and cared about) were swept away in the same bloody, brutal, or melancholy way they’d first arrived in Kingstown. First, viewers learned that Milo had actually escaped from the boat at the end of season two, where McLusky had stashed bags of stolen bonds and bombs. And then, that Milo had forced Iris to kill Konstantin (the boss who gave her her name) in a deal with McLusky that would give her freedom.
McLusky gets Iris to accept the deal, and she kills Konstantin. Once Iris reluctantly leaves McLusky, he overpowers Milo and shoots him dead for making disrespectful comments about his relationship with his deceased mother Miriam (Dianne Wiest). Then, in one of the final scenes, Iris is alone in the back of a fleet bus. When the driver comes back to check on her, Iris is cold and lifeless, her eyes wide open after a drug overdose.
The Hollywood Reporter spoke with Dillon recently about closing the Iris chapter, the emotional conclusion of season three for him and the crew — after their protagonist, Renner, returned to work after his near-fatal accident — and his hopes for continuing the story of City of Kingsas Paramount+ has not yet confirmed the renewal for a fourth season.
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So the finale ended with a metaphorical firework.
I love it. The show means everything to me. I was talking to Jeremy [Renner] this morning, and it felt like it was taking so long to get there. And then all of a sudden, it's the finale! But it's deeply satisfying to get this far, and I couldn't be more excited for Jeremy and his family, just to get to that finale. What that guy has done behind the camera and in front of the camera is just spectacular in every way.
With the deaths of Milo, Konstantin, and Iris, is it safe to say this is the end of that story arc? City of Kings history?
Yeah, I mean it actually follows any pattern of genuine crime, because what it does, what it always does, is it leaves a void. And it will be filled, that's human nature.
Iris's death was heartbreaking and took many viewers by surprise. Yet, some think it made perfect sense, as she wanted to be loved and didn't want to be alone. Why did Iris take her own life?
She didn't take her life; it was an accidental overdose. You know, that's part of the authenticity of the show and where I grew up. I struggled with heroin early in my life, and I had a lot of friends who died from it. [that]; opioid addiction is a real thing. What Taylor [Sheridan] taught me is to talk about what you know, and not to hold back. And that's what we did. Life is brutal and unfair, and we wanted to tell real stories. And we wanted to make an impact. And that's the ultimate reality.
But I have to say, what Emma Laird did with that character was extraordinary, definitely beyond the page. When you saw that last sequence, as you said, it broke your heart. And that’s what we wanted her to do. She worked so hard on the show, and she was asked to do some really difficult things, and she brought it. She brought everything to the table. From the work she did in the first season; she was just a fully fleshed out character. And we’re so grateful to her as a person and as an actor. For someone like you to say that she broke your heart, we did our job.
Why did you decide to bring Milo back?
Aiden is just a force of nature, and to have that part of the whole story come to a close. Our showrunner, Dave Erickson, nailed it. He saw the path forward, and Taylor made sure that by season two, it was like, you really have to watch and follow the end to be like, “Oh, he made it off that boat.” It was just poetry. It tied all the stories together so brilliantly, and when the bubble burst, it also opened up, as you say, the future of this giant void. Because now this whole wall of crime has fallen.
Jeremy's family was there during that scene with Milo, when Milo was talking about his [Mike McLusky’s] mom. I watched it in real time and I looked at the monitors; what Jeremy was expressing on his face in that scene was everything. Miriam [his mom]; he's gone, taking care of Milo; the part of Iris. Renner is just able to put all of that together in facial expressions and a couple of words. It's poetry.
Let’s talk about Jeremy. How would you say his strength, mental and physical, has grown as the season has gone on?
It went out with a bang! That opening, that’s where it all started. And just physically, being in Pittsburgh in the winter, it was so challenging. Nobody knew where we were going to end up. But we knew we had great scripts, and it was exciting when we shot. We had Taylor to make sure we had a great team, and with Christoph Schrewe shooting great, that was the beginning. And then it felt like a tornado to the end, to the finale on the bridge. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, all the pieces fall into place and it becomes urgent, and I think because everyone was so invested in being there for Jeremy, it just picked up speed and Jeremy was able to do what he does best: kick ass in front of the camera and support the other actors.
Why does Evelyn Foley (Necar Zadegan) have her sights set on your character, Ian Ferguson, and what does that look like for a potential fourth season?
Well, I think it's just collateral damage, because she's behind Robert Sawyer. [SWAT leader played by Hamish Allan-Headley]. And the interesting thing is that many of these characters are from this city. They are citizens. When I grew up in Kingston [in Ontario, Canada, on which the series is based]there are people who are from Kingston and people who went to school and got jobs in the city. And we'll get into that, hopefully, once we see how it all plays out: these characters have known each other since they were kids and went to school together. And so did Evelyn. There's so much baggage that now, as professionals, people remember every little thing or know everything that's in their story.
Evelyn has been on Robert Sawyer's campaign since day one. She believes he shouldn't be a police officer and she's trying to get to him. And she says, she'll shoot through a wall to get to him. “What is this serial killer shooting and where were you?” So now she's investigating me and she's said since day one that she has a problem with the KPD.
But he said he's going to follow the rule of law, and I think that's what makes his character fascinating. And that's the tension in his relationship with Mike, because Mike lives in a gray area.
What are your thoughts and plans for season four?
Season 4, from your lips to God's ears! (Laughter) And you know, God is a fan of the Mayor of Kingstown.
It's exciting to be part of Mayorand show up and convey these characters. A big driving force is seeing the satisfaction with Jeremy Renner. He's done everything, he's made a giant comeback and seeing him artistically satisfied. The scripts are great, the characters are great. And that's what we want to do. We don't want to leave any stone unturned. This show is very rock 'n' roll.
Mayor of Kingstown Season 3 is now streaming on Paramount+.