'Orange Is the New Black' Season 3 Release: How Natasha Lyonne Finds 'Solidarity' With The 'Game Of Thrones' Cast
Natasha Lyonne teased some hints about whether or not she would return for the fourth season of Netflix's Orange Is the New Black.
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As Orange Is the New Black fans saw in season 3, Lyonne's character Nicky was sent to maximum security prison upon being blamed by a guard for having heroin in the Litchfield prison. The incident happened in the season's third episode, and Nicky was not seen at all for the rest of the season.
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Nicky was a big supporting player for the first two seasons, so fans were obviously up in arms over her fate. But at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour this week, she had some answers prepared for those wondering about if she's returning for season 4.
"I feel a great deal of solidarity with the cast of Game of Thrones," she quipped, referring to the HBO show's penchant for writing off main characters.
On a more serious note, she told E! News that she was excited about Nicky's arc in season 3.
"We have an incredible puppet master in [showrunner] Jenji [Kohan] and there's a great deal of trust that I have in that," Lyonne said. "I'm pretty much a person who is up for adventure and I thought it was wise to have there be a big consequence for Nicky's playing around with heroin. It can't all be fingering and cookies all the time. There's going to be hell to pay at a certain point for playing with her personal fire."
She stood behind the decision to ship Nicky off to maximum security if only to raise the stakes of the show.
"I think it makes sense and I think that the stakes of the show and the reason it resonates and continues to is ultimately because of this underlying intensity to the fact that these people have lost their freedom and are up against themselves behind these walls," Lyonne noted. "I think it's a good thing to have major characters suffer major consequences. Otherwise, I think it might be a little bit too friendly and it loses some of its bite."
There is no word on if Lyonne is returning for season 4, and how Nicky going back to Litchfield (or out into the real world) might work. Though it is important to remember that just because Lyonne is on set filming, it doesn't mean her character is necessarily back. Orange Is the New Black frequently uses flashback sequences so she may just be back for those. It is too early to tell.
Orange Is the New Black currently has all three seasons available to stream on Netflix.
