It’s been a long holiday break waiting for Jane the Virgin to return. It’s hard enough waiting every week, but when they take a whole month off, it’s torture! When we last left off, Petra was arrested after her mom sold her out. Jane was trying to keep “calma” when Rafael wanted Mateo for Chrismas, and she can’t pay for school because her scholarship was faked by Rogelio. That’s enough to keep us on the edge, but The CW offered a preview of the 2016 season that included Petra and Rafael embracing.
Photo: The CW
Jane the Virgin creator Jennie Snyder Urman sat on a Television Critics Association panel along with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend producer Aline Brosh McKenna discussing their CW comedies. After the panel, Urman spoke with reporters more to give us more hints. Jane the Virgin returns Mondays at 8 on The CW.
Did we see in the preview Petra giving Rafael a hug?
You did see them having a hug. That relationship will continue to develop and unfold and deepen.
Petra’s mom really sold her out, didn’t she?
She really did. She’s not the nicest. I think when you have a villain, if you want to have sympathy for them, you need somebody more villainous behind them making them do certain things.
Would you ever consider doing anything about the El Chapo story?
The crazy thing is that before he escaped the second time, that was the inspiration. I had seen that article about the escape and about the tunnel system when they got him. That’s why we put the tunnels in the hotel for Sin Rostro. He looms in our minds certainly. I’m very interested, like the Hollywood connection to a villain. Because it just happened, I’m still processing what it would mean in the Jane world and what that event was, but I feel like we’re going to have some specific reaction to that certainly.
Where does “calma” come from and will we see more “calma” the rest of the season?
It came from us wanting to continue to sort of trace generations in our show, and that’s always an important thing. So seeing Jane as a child and seeing what her influences are is all important. Then this year we’re wanting peel back a little bit. We flash back to Alba a bunch of times, and to her history, and what it was like growing up in or coming of age, and becoming a mom in Miami. So we sort of took Alba through that route. They’re trying to calm themselves down, I suspect, as we continue and more crazy stuff happens.
Does “calma” come from a specific Latina thing, or something you just made up?
No, just something that we made up that Alba’s husband would’ve given to her and Alba would’ve passed on.
Are you hearing that fans are frustrated with Jane’s recent romantic choices?
Yes. I think it’s because people love Jane so they really attach to her and they want her to be happy. A lot of people I know, I feel like the audience is pretty divided between Team Raphael and Team Michael. Michael is a good guy. His fiance got accidentally inseminated. You make bad choices, right? She’s going to have to choose and half the people are going to be disappointed if she chooses one of the two of them.
How big is Luisa’s journey in the next episodes?
Big. Luisa has a big journey.
Can she find love?
I mean, yes. Yes, she can find love and she will. She’ll have more romantic entanglements. You’ll start to see that happening.
Are there any more celebrity guests?
Rita Moreno coming back but I don’t know that I have anything specific lined up. Kate del Castillo’s back in episode 12. Adam Rodriguez continues on and Diego Boneta.
Did you envision the narrator working with the show this way?
It’s evolved. I envisioned a storyteller aspect and obviously right from the pilot, there was an intertextual relationship between the characters, the narrator and the type-ons on screen. So that has always been a focus. I think as I started to write the show and as the writers broke it, we found more useful, fun ways to integrate him more and more.
Is it fun in the writers room to use that?
Very fun and very fun to cut through exposition in fun ways. We challenge ourselves. It can’t be a narration that you would see on another kind of show. It has to be specific to Jane. He has to have a point of view and it has to be somewhat quirky. So we just try to keep ourselves to that.
Do we get any hints about the narrator’s identity?
I mean, I think there’s one small hint that I don’t know if people will pick up on. I’m not going to tell you.
Have we maybe met the narrator?
Interesting.
What are your thoughts on the baby’s age. Will it age in real time or could you cut to him older?
Oh, it’s aging in real time this year but for our six month time jump.
What else can we expect this season?
So we’ll build to Jane’s wedding, as I’ve said. Rogelio and Zoe reach a crossroads. There’s a health crisis amongst someone in our cast. Rogelio launches his next telenovela. He basically goes through a portal and ends up in different places in history, sort of solving problems along the way. He’s the first male feminist, you’re going to find out. And Petra, there’s someone surprising who comes from her past. She’s going to give birth in the not-too-distant future. I think she gives birth around [episode] 14, which is big, big moment in the show. Oh, there’ll be a lot of a lot of cards uncovered with Sin Rostro. She’ll show up again and we’ll find out what she’s looking like now. That’s a lot of stuff, right?
Jane The Virgin returns to The CW on January 25th, 9/8C
