'Roswell, New Mexico' Stars Jeanine Mason And Nathan Dean Prepare For Season 3 On The CW: 'This Season Is Wild'

(CBS) - Roswell, New Mexico returns for season three tonight on The CW at 8/7c. CBS' Matt Weiss caught up with two of the show's stars, Jeanine Mason and Nathan Dean to get the inside story on everything coming up in the show's third premiere.

MW: Jeanine, Nathan nice to see you both! Season three of Roswell, New Mexico coming up tonight at 8/7c on The CW. How does it feel to be back?

JM: It feels so good. The timing of our show rolling out as the pandemic started in the States at least, was real a blessing because we could connect to our fans and give them a little labor of love of ours in the midst of a really difficult time.

It also meant that we had a little bit more time before we could start back up. It's truly been a year and everybody is so excited. It's an actual year of change for our characters. Kind of nice even though we know everybody is ready to see it.

ND: It's hard to believe that we were able to pull this off with everything that everyone's had to go through. That's a credit to our showrunner Chris Hollier and to our amazing, amazing crew in New Mexico that we were able to not only get this thing started but not get stopped, not get cut short. We were able to create a product that we can now say, hey guys, we're back, hope you're all doing well.

JM: Back on Mondays!

ND: Here we are!

MW: I know the fans are all very excited. Jeanine, like you mentioned a year has passed since we've seen all your characters particularly Liz. How are things going for her in Los Angeles?

JM: Liz is per usual really focused, head in her work to save Maria. She hasn't quite taken the time to realize her life in LA is pretty good. It's even keeled, we'll say. She's got a great place, she's got a great job, that gives her access to everything she needs and requires to do her best work, to make her best contribution to health and medicine.

She's got a real meeting of the minds in her lab partner played by Steven Krueger, Heath is his name. He matches her in intellect and in sarcasm in a way that's really fun. They sort of really spar with each other.

The truth of the matter is, Liz is a woman who's made to give to her community. She's missing Roswell,  she's missing her people, she's missing Max Evans. She finds her way back to what is ultimately her real purpose, which is working with and for them.

Pretty quickly we find  out how dire things are there for our alien trio. As soon as she finds out things are bad of course she's miss hero protagonist. She wants to get involved and save the day.

MW: Nathan, pulling double duty on this season, with two characters, what's that experience like?

ND: It was wild. It was a blast and I'm still grateful to Hollier and all of our writers for trusting me with that. Diving into it, it's so fun to create a new character. In this world that I've known now for three years and meeting everyone in this town again for the first time, from a completely different perspective.

It was a lot fun. It was a lot of work. It's a very weird process doing scenes with yourself because you're joking back and forth. It's really fun though. I'm so grateful to our showrunner and our writers for trusting me with that.

MW: I'm sure it's confusing talking to yourself and also as part of that Max doesn't even really know a lot about his own history. Are we going to get more light shed on that this season?

ND: That's one of the wonderful things that Jones embodies is he's sort of the window into the past of these three aliens. Since last season Michael, Isobel, and Max have always had that question. Who am I? Who are we? Where do we come from? Jones is a little peak into what that world was.

Also, a little example of who Max could've been had he not grown up on Earth and it's sort of cool to see the humanity that Max has grown up in versus the sort of Alien world that Jones was in. We're going to learn a little bit more about where we come from.

MW: Jeanine, for Liz how do you think she'll be with Max this season? Do you think she'll be able to forgive everything that went down with the lab?

JM: I just want to tell you. [Laughs] But that would be spoiling the fun of watching I assume. I guess what I'll say is so much of her life has been decided for her. She is the answer to the Earth's need for a protector and steward So much of her own opinions on it haven't been taken into account yet. This is really the season where she just needs to for herself make the decision to take on this huge responsibility and that it feel like what makes most sense for her and her life.

So quickly she starts finding her way back. I love that she's not a perfect protagonist. No one is perfect. No one is squeaky clean. She loves the complication. She loves that her life is so big and messy and loaded. She has huge grounding forces.

For her it's Max and it's Roswell and it's her community. She finds her way back to a very big messy situation with Jones and falls into that rhythm really fast and starts making choices on where she wants to... I'll say this, by the end of the season she's made a decision that's permanent. Ok, that's it. [laughs]

MW: I mean it would be a great exclusive, so if you want to just tell me everything go right ahead! [Laughs]

JM: Just so you know. It's my favorite Liz and Max season. It really is the one where they make their final decision with each other. That's it, because if I say another thing I'm going to get in trouble. [Laughs]

MW: We don't want that, you're good! Last question for you both here, what are you most excited for people to see?

ND: I don't know. I think for me it's just awesome to be back. This season is wild. There's a lot more of the alien stuff. We get to see more from all of the characters; a more adult mature experience and reaction to their world.

JM: It felt like such a gift to get a third go at this. That's not an easy thing in this current television landscape. I think you can feel our enthusiasm throughout the year where we were just so excited to be back. We were just throwing things at the wall and trying everything and going full out.

By the end the of this season we were all so beat up and I mean that positively. That's my favorite kind of way to finish the season, when you feel it physically; you've exhausted yourself. Our stunt team was just on call every minute of this season this year. I'm excited for the action and the enthusiasm I hope fans feel from all of us getting to finally be back doing what we do.

MW: Thank you both so much for the time and all the best moving forward. Stay safe!

JM: You too, stay safe!

ND: Thank you.

Tune in for Roswell, New Mexico at 8/7c on The CW. Check your local listings for more information.