'The Lincoln Lawyer' Season 3 - Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and More

Moviefone speaks with Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and co-showrunner Ted Humphrey about 'The Lincoln Lawyer' Season 3. "This is a lot of work," Garcia-Rulfo said.

Manuel Garcia-Rulfo stars in 'The Lincoln Lawyer' season 3.

Premiering on Netflix October 17th is the third season of the popular series ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’, which is based on the popular novels by author Michael Connelly. The series stars Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (‘The Magnificent Seven’) as Mickey Haller, as well as Becki Newton (‘August Rush’), Neve Campbell (‘Scream’), Jazz Raycole (‘Waiting to Exhale’), Angus Sampson (‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’), Yaya DaCosta (‘The Nice Guys’), and Elliott Gould (‘The Long Goodbye’).

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, as well as executive producer, co-showrunner and director Ted Humphrey about season 3 of ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’, what fans can expect from the new season, the hunt for Glory Days’ killer, choosing the novels to adapt, finding authentic Los Angeles locations to shoot, what the series means to Garcia-Rulfo, and ideas for a possible season 4.

Related Article: Actor Manuel Garcia-Rulfo Talks Legal Drama ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’

Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in 'The Lincoln Lawyer' season 3. Photo: Netflix.

Moviefone: To begin with, Manuel, can you talk about how season 2 ended and what fans can expect from season 3?

Manuel Garcia-Rulfo: We finished last year's second season with discovering his friend Gloria Dayton (Fiona Rene) being murdered, so that's very shocking. In this season, I think, because of that, the stakes are a lot higher because we follow that case and he's trying to find the truth and who did it. Because it's so personal, the stakes are higher. He knows that the people behind it are very dangerous, and he knows that he puts his family in danger and himself and friends. But there's something about him that he must find the truth and justice for it, no matter what. I think that's why this season is so alive, and the stakes are so high, because there's so much at stake and so many obstacles that he has. So, it's just more personal, and it just feels heavier.

MF: Do you think Mickey’s personal feelings will cloud his judgement and could get in the way of him finding Glory Days’ killer?

MGR: Yeah, definitely. I think that sometimes it blurs his judgment of things, and that's why it is so important for him. So again, it's so personal that the stakes are higher.

(Right) Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in 'The Lincoln Lawyer' season 3. Photo: Netflix.

MF: Ted, can you talk about how you choose which Michael Connelly books to adapt for each season, and how involved is he in that decision?

Ted Humphrey: Well, that's a great question. Michael has a say in everything. Michael's a great partner on this show, and it's really been one of the great professional and personal experiences of my life to work with him. He's incredibly collaborative. It can be a little daunting to tackle adapting a series of books and have the author of those books be involved because sometimes authors don't always appreciate what Hollywood does with their work. Michael is incredibly appreciative, and incredibly collaborative. He's the first person to always say, "We can do better than what was in the book" or "Let's change this." He's appreciative of the ways in which we update the books. I know he was very vocal about that with season two because we took a book in season two that was, I don't know, 10 or 15 years old, and that the plot of which dealt with the subprime mortgage crisis, which was very relevant when the book was written in 2008 but wasn't very relevant today. We changed a lot of that to make it about gentrification and celebrity chef culture and things that are not in the book, but that are relevant today. We did that while keeping the basic structure of the story and, most importantly, the character relationships. I know he was really taken with how we did that. So, he does have some say, but ultimately, we're choosing the books that will flow best from one to another. This book that we adapted this season, ‘The Gods of Guilt’, is my personal favorite of the books or one of them. I know it's one of Michael's personal favorites as well because it's the most emotionally deep and resonant of the books, for the reasons we were just talking about, that it's so very personal to Mickey and how personal it is played out in a variety of ways throughout the book and throughout the season. So, to some extent, ever since I started this show, I've been looking forward to adapting this book, but we couldn't just do it right away because there are things that you must set in motion in previous seasons to build to the story of this book and Glory Days being chief among them. So, I've been looking forward to adapting this book for a long time, and it really has been a thrill to do so.

MF: Manuel, do you read the books that you are adapting before you begin shooting, or do you prefer to just read the scripts for the series?

MGR: I used to read them, and I love Michael Connelly, he's a genius. He's brilliant. But then to adapt it to the TV to make it work, sometimes they change some characters, and they bring in other characters from other books. So, I prefer to first, shoot the season, read the scripts, and then just for fun (read the books), because otherwise I start getting confused. So, I start getting ideas from the book that are not on the script. I think it's better to focus on the scripts of the TV show, and then for fun, I'll read the book. This is a lot of work. It's like five months of not having a personal life. But again, it's so fun. It's one of those things that, yes, you want to finish, and it feels so good, but at the end, you're going to miss your coworkers because we became like a family now.

Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in 'The Lincoln Lawyer' season 3. Photo: Netflix.

MF: Ted, the show takes place in Los Angeles and is also shot in Los Angeles locations that are not always seen in movies and on TV. Can you talk about how you choose the specific downtown Los Angeles locations where you shoot?

TH: I mean, it's a great question. We have a wonderful location department, and they're a huge part of what we do on the show. We're fortunate, first, just to shoot the show in Los Angeles. As we all know, we built this whole city to shoot things and then everything has gone elsewhere and it's been devastating, of course, to the production economy here and everything. These books are so LA-centric. They don't just take place in LA. They're really about LA. So, right from the get-go, it was always going to be the case that we had to shoot the show here. There are budget considerations to that. It simply costs more to shoot here than it costs to shoot other places. So, we must be smart about how we do that, and the locations department is a big part of that and combining locations and episodes in a certain way to maximize our bang for the buck or whatever in terms of our shooting schedule and all. But we make it a point to highlight different areas of Los Angeles and to try and highlight them as authentically as possible and show the reality and the verisimilitude of what Los Angeles is today, obviously a majority Latino city, but also an incredibly diverse city in terms of other ethnicities as well, all around the city. The food is a big part of that. Mickey is a foodie in the books, although in the books he eats at Dan Tana's a lot, and he takes his daughter to Du-par's in the valley, which is no longer there even. So, we've kind of expanded that. There's something about a guy who works out of his car that enables you, because of the literal vehicle of the car, to explore every aspect of the city, both visually, but also from a culture and food standpoint. So, we try and take as much advantage of that as we can.

MF: Manuel, what has it meant to you personally to have the opportunity to bring this character to the screen and work with this cast and crew?

MGR: Amazing, man. You can imagine a guy from Mexico, from Jalisco, playing a lawyer in Los Angeles and being a very successful show is just, I don't know. I'm very grateful and very thankful with the network, with the showrunners to take the chance on betting something that I am sure behind the scenes the executives were like, "Oh my God, we're going to hire a Mexican to play a lawyer." But it worked. Thank God, but I'm very thankful for that. They took the chance. It's amazing for me. I feel blessed and grateful.

Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in 'The Lincoln Lawyer' season 3. Photo: Netflix.

MF: Ted, can you talk about working with Manuel and what he’s brought to this role and this series?

TH: He's made the character his own. That was a process, although it was a process that really began on day one of shooting the first episode. Why did we cast Manuel? Because he made the character his own. Even in the audition, it was this kismet moment. The character in the books is Latino American, and we were very focused on honoring that. We looked at many different possibilities for this character. Right from the audition tape, he just became the character. In part, it's his natural charm, which is funny because in real life he's a humble and almost shy person. But on screen, he has this just natural effortless charisma and charm, and you believe that this is a guy that gets up in court and wins things as much with that as with whatever legal argument he's making basically. So, he's great to work with. This is a complicated show in terms of the dialogue. He's playing a lawyer. He has these huge court scenes. There's a lot of complicated legal jargon, so that's a lot of work for him. He's very meticulous, and he puts a lot of effort into bringing this character to the screen, and it's literally physically and emotionally draining for him to do, especially when we have these long days in the courtroom. He gets just physically exhausted by the end of those days. We try and work around that and help him in whatever way we can, but he's incredibly dedicated to bringing the character to the screen the best way every time.

MF: Finally, Ted, do you already have ideas for season 4 and which of Connelly’s books you might adapt?

TH: Well, we absolutely know what season four will be. We've set it in motion at the end of season three in the same way that we set season three in motion at the end of season two. Every TV series is all about the audience. We've been incredibly gratified by the response to the show, by how successful the show has been. If people want to (continue to) watch, we really love making this show. Obviously, we've got a wealth of material to work with from Michael's books, as well as things that we invent. There's a lot of roads still to go for these characters and this show. So yes, we have season four all planned out as to what it's going to be and where it's going to go. If people want it, we are very excited to deliver it to them. Beyond that, we have ideas for what at least one or two seasons after that would be. But again, it's just all about the audience enthusiasm for the show.

The Lincoln Lawyer

"Justice hurts."

NR3 SeasonsMay 13th, 2022

Watch The Lincoln Lawyer Online

What is the plot of ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ season 3?

Mickey Haller (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), an iconoclastic idealist, runs his law practice out of the back seat of his Lincoln, as he takes on cases big and small across the expansive city of Los Angeles. Based on the series of bestselling novels by renowned author Michael Connelly, the third season is based on the fifth book in ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ series, ‘The Gods of Guilt’.