Jordan, Lauria and Smollett chatted with me about the big shoes they had to fill, love triangles and doing their own stunts. (Note: I saw the first run on DirecTV, but there are no major spoilers ahead.) Read a season 4 preview here.
How did you guys feel coming on this already-established show as the “new generation”?

Lauria: It’s a huge honor, for sure. I’m a huge fan of the show and I’ve watched all the episodes leading up to the fourth season. To go and become a part of it is really a dream come true. Definitely when we first started, I had this huge feeling of responsibility to try and live up to the standards of myself and so many other fans.

Were you worried about being accepted by fans who’d grown to love the original characters?

Jordan: You can’t really think about that … you can’t really get that inside your head, because people are going to blog, people are going to comment. Everyone has their own opinions, they have their own favorites and what not. But, you can’t compare yourself to other characters on the show because everybody has their own thing, their own way and they bring something different to the table. I think for us, it was just [about] coming in and figuring out our characters and being true to who they are.
Lauria: The writers did an amazing job of transitioning from Dillon to East Dillon really smoothly. I’ve found that all the die-hard fans of the show have even said that to us at different times. They said, “I didn’t know if I’d like the new school, or the new characters,” but it just happened so seamlessly that they love it. They’ve all been rallying behind us and really wanted to see this underdog school succeed. [The fans] are eased into it. Some of the characters graduate and move on, but many of the really awesome characters that we all love are still on the show. Landry and Matt Saracen, Tim Riggins, even Lyla shows up for a little bit and of course Aimee Teegarden’s Julie is going to be around, even in the fifth season. There’s some of the new, but it’s not like they got rid of the old. All the stuff that we love about ‘Friday Night Lights’ is still there and it’s back.

To read the rest of this interview go to: TVSquad.com