Season three of ‘Hanna’ finds Hanna (Esmé Creed-Miles) teaming up with her former enemy Marissa Wiegler (Mireille Enos) to take down Utrax from the inside. That means manipulating John Carmichael (Dermot Mulroney) into helping them, but they discover a deeper conspiracy involving a new foe; the ruthless Gordon Evans (Ray Liotta). The cast recently sat down with Moviefone to talk about the upcoming season.

'Hanna' stars Esmé Creed-Miles and Mireille Enos

'Hanna' stars Esmé Creed-Miles and Mireille Enos

Esmé Creed-Miles and Mireille Enos talk about their characters learning to work together.

Movefone: So Esmé, tell me where season three picks up from season two.

Esmé Creed-Miles: Season three picks up with Hanna returning to the Meadows, which is confusing. And we wonder is she perhaps one of the baddies now, which of course we don't really wonder that, but then it's revealed that she's working alongside Marissa to infiltrate from the inside, the Utrax world place.

MF: I think that's key to this series. We are always wondering like, Who's who? Are they bad now? Are they good now? I think that's part of the charm of the series. And Mireille, where do we find Marissa in season three?

Mireille Enos: So, part of the plan that Hanna and Marissa have is that Marissa is going to pretend to be dead. So she has to go deep, deep, undercover, and she's moving the chess pieces from her hidden bunker. Together, they have Carmichael under their thumb, and they are going to try to deconstruct Utrax from the inside.

MF: Tell me as much as you can about the interaction that you have, Esme, with Carmichael this season.

Creed-Miles: Well, working with Dermot was a dream. He's the best. And it was interesting. I mean, again, he's a character who, I guess, in season two is more of an ominous figure, and then in season three, just feels like a Q-Tip who's just being like pushed around by these different powerful people, like Stapleton. He's like this guy who's just being, meh, by Stapleton and, meh, by Marissa. It's funny.

Enos: Yeah. He's fighting for his life. He's just like, whatever opportunities are in front of him, he's trying to take so that he can get out. We feel bad for him.

Creed-Miles: Yeah. He's not the baddie or the goodie, he's just-

Enos: No, he's really a pawn this year.

Creed-Miles: Yeah.

MF: He's out for himself this season, right?

Creed-Miles: He's trying to just look after himself. It's true. Yeah. Yeah.

MF: And Mireille, tell me out Gordon Evans. I mean, Marissa and Gordon are familiar with each other.

Enos: Yes. They know each other. They have known each other for a very long time. He's a very powerful figure in the United States in government in the espionage world. And he had a powerful effect on Marissa early on when they knew each other. And he's one of the few people that she's scared of. And it's been a long time. She hasn't seen him. And then he reemerges in her life in a way that really just rocks hers.

MF: And Mireille, how would you describe the relationship between Hanna and Marissa this season?

Enos: It's very hard for Marissa to work in a team. She always likes to be the one in charge, and there's still that dynamic at the beginning that she's the final say on everything. And as the season continues, that shifts, and they grow to trust each other. They each give each other room to take the lead, and that's very new for her.

MF: And Esmé, I'm always, when I watch the show, just so astounded at these girls and how finely tuned they are. They're not scared. They show no emotion. They never get worked up when something horrible is happening. So this has been really coming of age for Hanna through the seasons. So I'm wondering what it's like for you personally coming from season one now to season three, because your character has really grown. We've really seen three different parts of Hanna's life in these three seasons.

Creed-Miles: Well, I was just turning 18 when I was cast, so it was a lot of pressure, and sometimes I didn't handle that great. Sometimes I did. It was just being a young person, essentially a teenager in this big with all this responsibility, so it encouraged me to, I guess, grow up and take care of things that I probably wouldn't have done if I didn't have the responsibility of a TV show. And so for that, I'm very grateful. And also just to have a footing in an industry that's really difficult to get into again, I'm very grateful for.

MF: And Esmé, back to your character now, Hanna and the rest of the girls, at the end of the day, you do see things through it that shows that even though they're so finely trained, they are still young girls. And so Hanna has a relationship this season with Abba. So what is that relationship like?

Creed-Miles: I think it's the first time she really falls in love and I think that it complicates her obligations, and it complicates her life because now there's not just the goal of whatever espionage-esque endeavor that they're on. It's like, oh, there's someone else to protect and that person's child as well. So it adds another element of tension into the narrative arc, I guess. That's super pretentious. I'm sorry.

Enos: No, it's not at all. Something I love about it is there's these two scenes, there's one scene in episode one in which Hanna says to Marissa, I" only know how to fight. If you gave me the life I've always wanted, I wouldn't know what to do with it." And then a few episodes later, she's having a conversation with a boss in which he's describing the home. If in some fairytale life, they got to build a home together, what it would be like, and it would have white walls, and it would have orange trees. And those two things in juxtaposition, it's like the first time she's able to imagine what a life she would want might look like.

Dermot Mulroney gives an update on his character John Carmichael.

Movefone: Tell us where season three picks up from season two.

Dermot Mulroney: Season three starts just a couple of days after season two. Carmichael just got shot in the arm by Hanna. Not cool. And Marissa Viegler has just said to him, "Now you work for me." And we go back to the Meadows. This is how it opens, at least on my character, which is that country of state in England, where I've been training up the girl assassins. You're seeing the third season a year or more after we had that second season out, but it's almost the next day. Carmichael, however, is in a completely different circumstance. Last season, he was running the show, right? Or at least it seemed that way. And now he's being forced to take down his own program. So it's a pretty cool turn right from the beginning. And then season three is just full of other plot twists and turns.

MF: As always. There's always so many twists and turns and so many uncertainties for the audience watching it. What is the relationship in this season between Marissa and Carmichael?

Mulroney: Well, that's somewhat even a mystery to me still. I love that it's never fully defined and that there's some definite sensation of them having, I don't even mean a romantic relationship or anything, but it's pretty dense the way that they are around each other. This season, however, now she's engaged in pulling, using... Hanna goes back into the Meadows to take it down, to take down Utrax, but they still don't know everything about it, even Marissa doesn't. So they need to get that information from Carmichael, so they're using me. We also learn in this season, as Ray Liotta comes into play the chairman, that Carmichael hasn't been in charge of the Meadows and the DNA dosing program. He's just been a middle management guy. So that was news to me too, but it reframed Carmichael's place in Utrax for me, and then that's happening as he's getting in deeper and deeper trouble. So there are good bits after that, that I won't share with you, but know that the action increases right to the end and the way they twist this story around is quite incredible.

MF: Where do you think Carmichael's loyalties lie in this season?

Mulroney: Well, as always, Carmichael's main concern is Carmichael. So you see him especially deeper into this season. You see him in real trouble. And so you'll see a side of Carmichael you haven't seen where he's out of control and where he is seriously desperate and fighting for his own survival. So it's a really fun turn for me, the actor, but also for Carmichael to... The table's turn on him. It's that simple. He's now more like Hanna in that Hanna's never really had a say in who she is, what her true identity is and where she fits into the world. And now Carmichael's world has turned completely upside down. He'd been in total control last season, and now he can't really put two and two together until he has to. Then he goes feral, pretty much. He gets down and dirty.

MF: He does, which I'm not completely used to seeing you in those types of roles. I did watch 'Hard Luck Love Song.' I did some interviews for that, so I saw you in that.

Mulroney: Right on. Thank you for supporting that film. Thank you. We love that movie.

MF: And kind of a rough and down and dirty role as well.

Mulroney: Yeah. I think I was some sort of poolroom punk.

MF: In my mind, I still see you in rom coms. I don't know.

Mulroney: Understood. I get that. I know. But sometimes that helps for me then to play the bad guy, because then it's a little more unexpected maybe, or so I think at times, but really I've played so many different types of parts. I'm more and more proud of the things that everybody likes. Amazing. Yeah.

MF: Going back to the season of ‘Hanna,’ there's a kill list, an assassination list. Who are they targeting?

Mulroney: Well, that's the amazing thing. This is the distinctive part of the story. David Farr cooked up an Utrax program. He knew what it was doing all along, but he didn't tell anybody in season one. Season two, we learned a little bit, but really now we finally realize that this program has taken decades to get to the point of launching these young female assassins out into the world to kill any young person, I think they say under the age of 29, that the CIA has determined might be a future threat to the United States of America. So Carmichael's a company man, G man, he's CIA through and through. He's doing what he knows to be best for his country. Now, we all watching the show know that's not cool going around killing people because they're activists or protesters or all that. We also get to know one of those young people, Adam Bessa plays Abbas Naziri in our show.

He and Hanna have a really strong connection. I won't give too much on that. Wonderful actor. And that's part of the story that helps Hanna get in touch with who she really is, which is ultimately the heart of this entire story, is who she really is instead of what she's been manipulated, down to her DNA, being manipulated. And we see a young woman coming into who she is, where she fits in the world, what her true identity is. So I know so many people can relate to that now. And Esmé Creed-Miles is exquisite in this role.

MF: She absolutely is. And we've seen her really grow from the first season to the third. When you start a season, do you know the arc of the whole season, or are you just getting script by script?

Mulroney: No, I think this was more a script by script, which in its own way is wonderful. I'll do it either way, but it's its own exercise in acting, because you don't really know the end of the character, but that teaches you to just be in the moment. Right? I mean, it sounds really corny coming from an actor, but since you don't know where the story's going, you have to really commit to the truth in the scene you're in. But I have these incredible actors to work with, so it is that anyway. Mireille Enos plays the lead grown up spy who just really goes even further this season, and they added Ray Liotta to the thing to be the chairman of the Utrax program. So that was a super highlight for me. The two old bulls do have a scene in the middle of the show that turns the plot again. So it was a real honor to be working with Ray, and he's an integral part with lots of plot twists involved in his character too.

MF: You must be very comfortable in your character now that it's season three. So is it easier just to play now in season three because you know Carmichael so well, you know how he'd react to something?

Mulroney: Well, yes, except that the circumstances are so new that some of those scenes, I didn't know Carmichael had it in him. He really is depicted more like a man behind the scenes, sitting at the desk on the computers in our previous season. And we kind of start out that way, except we know he's being asked to work against himself. But then, yeah, it gets pretty gnarly. I have to say, script upon script, I didn't see that coming to that extent. So he has been trained as a spy, let's say genius spy craft. But when it gets down to it, he's got to fight tooth and nail, so it takes on a whole other quality.

Series newcomer Ray Liotta describes his character and what attracted him to the show.

Movefone: Ray, you're new to the cast this season. What intrigued you enough to say yes to this role?

Ray Liotta: I liked the script. I watched the first two seasons and thought the acting was really compelling, so between the script and that ... I wasn't sure at first, but then I said, "You know what? Let me just give it a shot." I'm glad I did because ... I haven't seen it yet, but people seem to like it.

MF: You are the villain in season three, Gordon Evans. What does he want with Hanna? Why does he want her so badly?

Liotta: Well, Hanna's a connection to my daughter, and I know my daughter would do whatever I want her to do if I could manipulate Hanna and get her into me, I knew I'd be able to get my daughter and try to connect with her again. I mean, it's a twisted way of thinking, but that's what this was.

MF: When you were building your character, what kind of is the backstory of Gordon Evans?

Liotta: I think that all the information that you need is within the script. Like I said, there was the backstory with my daughter. There's a scene and there are a couple of times ... Although I'm not sure if it made it into the cut. But it's a twisted, bizarre relationship. I mean, it's very, very extreme.

MF: Tell me about Pioneer, who is Pioneer, or what is Pioneer?

Liotta: It's the way of doing what it is that my character thinks is the right thing to do. He cloaks himself in patriotism and extremism because he doesn't want bad things to happen. There's a mention about 9/11, and if we could get those guys before it even happened, it might not have happened. But now, like I said, it's very extreme, and as Roy points out well, what happens if you get the wrong people? What if ... You're going after these bad guys when they're young. Again, but Pioneer is what these girls ... I mean, I'm grooming them to do bad things to other people.

MF: There's this kill list, the assassination list. Who are they specifically targeting?

Liotta: People that I think we think that could end up doing something bad to the country, their belief system and how... It's almost as extreme as McCarthyism, when back in the fifties they're going after people that they think might have leaning towards communism. So they go after them made some mistakes like we do in this. But basically the character thinks that this is the way to go to protect our country. It's just a very twisted way of doing it.

‘Hanna’ Season 3 is available on Prime Video.