LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION SEASON 3 key art | ©2025 Prime / Electric Entertainment

LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION is now available in its (so far) three-season entirety on Prime Video. The series is a sequel to the original LEVERAGE (2008-2012), both created by Chris Downey & John Rogers and executive-produced by Dean Devlin. Both series focus on a team of (mostly) reformed criminals who use their diverse skills to pull con jobs (complete with a wide variety of fake identities) on big-money, big-power villains who are shafting individuals.

The third season of LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION sees original LEVERAGE regulars Gina Bellman and Christian Kane back for their eighth seasons as, respectively, expert role player Sophie Devereaux and ex-military hard man Eliot Spencer.

For Season 3 of LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION, Bellman and Kane, along with fellow original castmate Beth Riesgraf (who plays master thief Parker), have all been made executive producers.

When Kane and Bellman get on a Zoom call, they talk about their new behind-the-scenes roles on LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION and more about the show’s third season.

For starters, what prompted taking on executive producer duties?

Kane nods to Bellman, indicating she should take the question first.

“It happened very seamlessly,” says Bellman. “There was no big discussion about it, I think it was just acknowledged that the time had come, that Christian’s so involved in choreographing his fights and putting in the extra time rehearsing on weekends and after the shoot. Obviously, Beth’s made a great impression as a director on LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION. And I’m very involved with the writers and working on hopefully helping to get the scripts really tight. It just felt like a perfect time to acknowledge our contribution, aside from having been with the show since its conception. It just felt organic.”

Kane agrees. “Yeah. It’s eight seasons of the show, it was time for, I think, not for us to ‘have a say’ in stuff, but just to be recognized, that we are part of the creation of the show.”

As a director on LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION, Riesgraf has added say. She has to date helmed five episodes of the series. What is being directed by Riesgraf like for her longtime colleagues Bellman and Kane?

“It’s great,” Bellman declares. “I mean, it’s definitely an adjustment, because the director is essentially your boss, and that is not the dynamic that we’re used to after all these years,” she laughs. “But at the same time, we come from a culture on this show of raising each other up, and we’ve always done that, we’ve always really supported one another, we’ve always encouraged one another. So, it’s been wonderful to watch her become so confident as a director, and we love it.”

Beth Reisgraf, Aleyse Shannon. Christian Kane, Gina Bellman, Noah Wyle in LEVERAGE – REDEMPTION| ©2021 Electric Entertainment

Were they expecting LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION to have a Season 3 before it was picked up?

Bellman looks to Kane, but he indicates she should answer again. She laughs. “I think we were expecting a Season 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. When we came back for REDEMPTION, our boss, Dean Devlin’s phrase was, ‘Do you want to get the band back together?’ And it feels like, even if the show evolves, there will always be a time to get the band back together

Kane concurs once more. “Some music will be playing, yeah.”

“We know that the show keeps gathering new fans, new generations,” Bellman elaborates. “The beauty of the show is that it appeals to so many different generations and people watching it communally, and families with siblings and friends and parents …”

“And we’re still having so much fun, it’s ridiculous,” Kane adds. “When a show starts dying, it’s because the fun dies. And we’re still having the most fun. Even since Season 1, we’re still having that much fun, and I think that’s what comes out of the screen, and that’s what keeps the fans going, and it definitely keeps us going.”

Do Bellman and Kane think that LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION Season 3 has a theme?

I think the theme we’re looking at this season is whether these characters can change,” Bellman replies, “whether they can adapt, how they’re going to evolve in their personal relationships? Because we’ve seen the fact that they’re very committed to the cause of helping others and taking on corruption and making amends and seeking redemption.

“Obviously, [in Season 2] we saw Eliot Spencer go on his journey in his personal life, but I think now it’s about how are Parker and Hardison [Aldis Hodge] going to evolve in their relationship, what are next steps for Sophie, what are next steps for Brianna [the computer hacker played by Aleyse Shannon]? Last year, Sophie was trying to encourage her to go to college. And I think this season is about whether these characters can adapt going forward.”

LEVERAGE – REDEMPTION key art | ©2021 Electric Entertainment

“It’s so interesting,” Kane opines. “It’s fun, but I love the fact that you just said that. We’re still helping other people, but we’re trying to help ourselves, and we’re all trying to help each other. That’s crazy. I didn’t even think about that until just now. That’s absolutely true.”

“You’re welcome,” says Bellman graciously.

“Thank you,” Kane responds. Bellman laughs.

In Season 2, we found out that Eliot was raised by adoptive parents, including grouchy dad Billy Spencer, played by Keith David. At roughly the same time, we learned that Sophie has a stepdaughter, Astrid (Alexandra Park), who is now an agent of Interpol.

Did Kane and/or Bellman pitch those character developments? What do those revelations do for Eliot and Sophie?

Bellman relates, “I think we’re on the same page, as in both of those storylines that you mention, interestingly, we had discussed way back in the day. In my case, it wasn’t that I had a stepdaughter, but the back story of having been married to an aristocrat in the U.K., and then,” she turns to Kane, “you had spoken about your back story many, many years ago, right?”

Kane nods. “I did. I based [Eliot], in my mind, off of Mr. T and Kurt Russell’s character in BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA. But we always came up with the fact that it was literally like, maybe Mr. T was my dad, you know what I mean? And then, as another season went on, we went, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if Christian was adopted and had a Black family to mess with Hardison?’ Because it would really screw with Hardison. And that kind of went on and on, and we always thought about that.

“And I met Keith David at an awards ceremony, and I went up to him and I said, ‘Dude, I’m such a fan.’ He turned around and said, ‘I’m such a fan.’ And I go, ‘What?!’”

When he recovered from the surprise, Kane explains, he told David, “ ‘I got something for you, man.’ I really never in my life thought Keith David would say yes to being on LEVERAGE or playing my dad, and he did. It was such an honor for me, man. It was exactly what we had talked about, it was exactly the shock that Hardison got, it was just everything. ‘Hey, that’s my dad.’ And it couldn’t have been a stronger character. Keith played it so strong, now you know where Eliot came from. It was very important to me, and I just loved it.”

How do the actors approach the personas that their characters adopt for con jobs? Do they start with the accent, the costume, or what they are trying to accomplish with the con?

Kane gestures for Bellman to take this question, which she does. “The accent is usually in the script, but I definitely have a great collaborative relationship with Nadine Haders, our costume designer. She and I have so much fun. We’re really, really good friends, and we spend our weekends going costume-shopping together. We’ll go for brunch, and then we’ll be like, ‘Ah, let’s go shopping for Sophie,’” Bellman laughs. “So, I definitely take a lot of inspiration from the costumes, and the conversations that I have with Nadine.”

Timothy Hutton and Gina Bellman in LEVERAGE – Season 5 Series Finale – “The Long Goodbye” | ©2012 TNT/Erik Heinila

Without spoiling things too much, is there anything in Season 3 that make the actors particularly proud?

“I just punch people for a living, it’s so exciting,” Kane laughs.

“That’s not true,” Bellman objects. “You have a lot of comedy.”

“Yes, there’s a lot of comedy,” Kane acknowledges. “There’s going to be some different dancing – not dancing, but we try to make the fights different, every time we get into a fight, to really please the fans. And so, in my book, that’s a win for me that.”

Bellman points to some of Kane’s more humorous work, where Eliot impersonates a menacing horror movie backwoods type. “One of my favorite vignettes of this season was the characters that you and Beth play in the ‘Polygeist’ episode.”

When his character’s deadly glare in the episode is praised, Kane laughs. “Oh, good. I was so worried about it. I was like, ‘It either looks like a rag doll, or it looks like …’ I guess either way, it’s going to be scary, but it was a lot of fun to play off of that, and especially, I’ve never gotten to do a horror movie. So, it was fun to play the mass murderer, so to speak.”

Do Bellman or Kane feel that LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION, where the bad guys are often cloaked in the color of authority, is more timely this season?

Both of them seem to feel the series is perennially timely.

I feel really strongly about it,” Bellman responds. “I’ve always felt this way, from Day One. I remember back in the day, in Season 1, having conversations with John Rogers and Dean Devlin about DOCTOR WHO, because they were both big DOCTOR WHO fans. And I’ve always loved the fact that DOCTOR WHO was a genre show, but it played to a multi-generational audience, and I always felt that that’s what our show lent itself to perfectly, that our fans are families, that kids can watch it with their siblings, or with their friends, or with their parents, or with their grandparents.

Christian Kane, Beth Riesgraf and Aldis Hodge in LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION | ©2021 Electric Entertainment

“There’s a lot of discussion in the media and amongst people right now about how separate we all are, even in our own homes. We’re in different rooms on different devices. I think that shows like LEVERAGE are a great – they’re very soulful. The shows that I watched, like KNIGHT RIDER and CHARLIE’S ANGELS and THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN and THE A-TEAM, they brought the whole family together. They were conversations at school. And I do think that we need to get back to that, and I think people are beginning to want to get back to that, get off the iPads, get off the phones, and get into a room, watch TV, play a card game together. And I think LEVERAGE is a really great way back to that.”

It is clear that Bellman means that people should gather together around whatever they watch LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION on, but Kane can’t resist teasing her.

“So, get off the phones, get off the iPads, but stream our show?” He laughs and becomes more serious. “No, I understand what you’re saying. One of the things about our show, and you said it, it’s very timeless. The great thing about our show is, we’re never going to run out of content. There are always bad guys to take down in this world, I think that that’s really good. I do understand what you’re saying, I’m just saying that [by telling them to get off their digital equipment] you’re asking people to not watch the show.”

Bellman takes his point and laughs.

Kane pretends to continue in the spirit of this suggestion. “Get off the phone, turn the TV off, read a book …”

Bellman returns to her theme. “We did a convention at the end of the year, and it’s great, because we get the chance to actually meet our fans, and the fans have a community outside of us. They’ve had friendships with people in the LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION and LEVERAGE community that go back as long as we go back.”

Kane feels the same. “A very good friend of mine, who is a little bit older than me, his name is Joe, I just met his daughter. When I met her the first time, she started crying, and I gave her a hug. She said, ‘When I came home from college, that was our show we watched.’ And that was the best gift. It’s a family show. It really is.”

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Article: Exclusive Interview: Actors Christian Kane and Gina Bellman on the third season of LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION

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