A tight-knit group! As filming kicks off on season 4 of Nancy Drew, cast members including Kennedy McMann have offered fans a glimpse at the process.
In July 2022, the actress took to social media to show her reunion with onscreen dads Scott Wolf and Riley Smith. “Right after this I explained what ‘rick rolling’ is so if we don’t embody a true fathers daughter relationship I don’t know who does,” she captioned the photos via Twitter.
McMann previously opened up about how the dynamic between the trio became one of her “favorite parts” of season 3. “Nancy and Carson have gone through so much together, and they really just love each other immensely. They need each other. It’s one of my favorite relationships on the show, and it’s really wonderful to explore that dynamic in a less tumultuous place,” she told TV Line in October 2021. “Plus, Nancy and Ryan now have a cool opportunity to settle into their roles in each other’s lives. Ryan’s stepping into this parenting position for the first time, and Nancy’s trying to find a way to let him do that.”
Season 4 of Nancy Drew, which is set to have a midseason premiere in 2023, will continue to explore Nancy’s relationships with her loved ones. The sleuth’s decision to kill Temperance in order to save Horseshoe Bay will influence Nancy’s life — and her romance with Ace (Alex Saxon).
“[It’s] going to be a season of intense yearning for both of them,” executive producer Noga Landau teased during an interview with Entertainment Weekly in January 2022. “It’s only ramping it up even more, for sure. For me, this show is always about the simmering love and yearning — for multiple characters, but especially for Nancy and now for Nancy and Ace together.”
Fellow executive producer Melinda Hsu Taylor noted that Nancy’s selfless choice will “weigh heavily” on her going forward.
“To her, the experience of being responsible for Ace’s death in a car crash was very emotionally real to her. That’s going to be quite the deterrent anytime she even wants to give him a look that she wouldn’t give to a platonic friend,” she noted at the time. “Her mind is so regimented that she will train herself not to let him know how she feels, which is going to convince him all the more that something’s going on, because he knows Nancy wouldn’t be one day about to kiss him and the next day like he’s just somebody she barely knows. It’s going to live in her mind in a really real way and influence a lot of her actions.”
The duo also hinted that viewers will get a chance to see the town of Horseshoe Bay in a whole night light. “At least at the beginning of Season 4, we are still going to be talking about a town that is reeling from a very scary disaster,” Landau explained to TV Insider that same month.
Taylor, for her part, pointed out that the events in season 3 will influence the way the people come together. “I feel like one of the reasons that people gravitate to our show, in my opinion, is because it reminds them that there is this human connection out there, you know?” she shared. “In Nancy’s world, people are not wearing face masks, there’s no pandemic and people are still interacting with each other in this kind of larger system of connections. And I think it feels good to be reminded of that.”
Scroll down for a look at the Nancy Drew cast working together on set: