Gina Rodriguez Joins Season 3 of ‘Will Trent’

This year we’ve seen Latinx representation on television continue to diminish and Gina Rodriguez has experienced both highs and lows this year on the silver screen. Though the first season of Not Dead Yet got rave reviews, including for her performance, it was canceled after two seasons earlier this year due to low viewership. But she hit the ground running when shortly after it was announced that she would be co-hosting the ABC game show Lucky 13 alongside former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal. Now she’s returning to scripted television joining the cast of ABC’s police crime drama Will Trent as a series regular, making her first appearance in the season three debut. She will play assistant district attorney Marion Alba, “a charismatic, confident Assistant District Attorney new to Atlanta” who will work together with Will to investigate a gang-related crime, according to Deadline. The show stars fellow Puerto Rican Ramón Rodríguez and is one of the few with Latinx leads along with Lincoln Lawyer on Netflix, The Rookie on ABC, and Lopez vs. Lopez on NBC.

Originally premiering in 2023, Will Trent is based on the book series by author Karin Slaughter, which follows the titular character as a special agent at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI). Abandoned at birth, he grew up in Atlanta’s foster care system and uses his unique experiences to pursue justice and achieve the highest clearance rate in the history of the agency. A second season premiered in February 2024, with the series being renewed for a third season a few months later in April. Though Rodriguez will be a series regular, it’s unclear how big her role as Marion will be and what the nature with Will will be over the course of this new season.

Best known for her role as Jane in CW’s Jane the Virgin (2014-2019), Rodriguez has since starred in various film and TV projects including Diary of a Future President on Disney+, Spy Kids: Armageddon, and Players on Netflix. She also has a production company I Can and I Will, which is now under an overall deal at 20th Television, and has produced both Diary of a Future President and Not Dead Yet. She’s previously talked about being a Latina in the industry and how a win for her is a win for the community.

“For so long, I was still sitting in gratitude and in fear that I did not belong in those rooms of executives. The difficulty to have our stories bought didn’t help that fear and insecurity in me,” Rodriguez previously told NBC News. “It had to shift very intentionally to not a sense of entitlement of belonging there, but a sense of confidence that if I just continued to keep trying, every little win was going to be a massive win, and eventually the ball was going to get rolling.”

Will Trent season 3 is set to premiere in early 2025.