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Big changes are afoot for Season 3 of “Transparent”

First, the good news: Season 3 of Transparent is coming this September 26 to Amazon Prime, and they’ve released this new trailer to get fans excited about the latest from the Pfeffermans.

In some not-so-great news, three of our favorite recurring cast members are MIA. Yesterday at Amazon’s TCA day, Transparent stars Gaby Hoffmann and Amy Landecker confirmed that Tammy (Melora Hardin), Syd (Carrie Brownstein) and Barb (Tig Notaro) are not a part of Season 3.

“It’s kind of wild. You know, Melora was such a big part of my first couple years [on the show]-I went through a real mourning process,” Amy said.

Instead, Sarah’s season is sharing more time with on-screen ex-husband Len (Rob Huebel).

“I think what Sarah’s doing is probably feeling her divorce more and exploring the loss of that in different ways,” Amy said. “I’m sure anyone who’s broken up with someone you have a feeling with-there’s times when you think ‘Maybe we should try this again.’ So there may be an element to that, but I don’t want to give away too much.”

We also see some continuation of Sarah’s Season 2 exploration of BDSM, although Amy hints it might be short-lived.

“I don’t want to give too much away-I’ll just say it’s early on. You’ll see what happens. I might be so scary that even my dom needs to leave,” Amy says, laughing. “She might even screw up that relationship. Sarah might even be capable of screwing up that relationship.”

But a huge part of Sarah’s Season 3 is reconnecting with Judaism, which works out well for Amy because she says one of her requests was to work with Kathryn Hahn, who plays Rabbi Raquel.

“I have to say I feel like Season 3 is more about spiritual kind of exploration for [Sarah],” Amy said. I think she’s trying to find God and so I think her sort of sexual athletics takes kind of a backseat to her spiritual exploration. But of course, she probably screws that one up, too. She screws everything up; God bless her.”

While Syd might be out of the picture, Sarah’s sister Ali is continuing with another relationship she formed in Season 2. When we last left Ali, she was deciding between pursuing a romantic relationship with Leslie (Cherry Jones) or a professional one, working as her TA. But the trailer makes it clear that the choice was quite simple for Ali: She wants to be with Leslie.

“I think it takes some surprising turns, and we both got to explore what that relationship is and could be in ways that were surprising to each of us and our characters,” Gaby said. “It’s very kind of sweet and more subtle than I think-initially I thought it was going to be this wild affair. So, yeah, we get to explore it in a way that I was surprised by.”

As for sibling time, Amy said she doesn’t feel like she has as much screentime with Gaby and on-screen brother Josh Duplass this season, although they do have some fantastic family scenes.

“There are still those sort of anchor scenes of the family getting together for some sort of holiday or some sort of birthday, and that’s when we play the game called Sardines, which is like this classic family game,” Amy said. “And so that’s one of those kind of iconic Pfefferman episodes when we’re all together in this house in different configurations. It’s really beautifully shot, too, so we did have some, but I do think we’re going even more into our individual stories.”

As for Sarah and her siblings’ oft-discussed selfishness, Amy defends her character while also acknowledging that dysfunction is more fun to watch.

“It’s funny because I took the personality test of [Which Transparent character are you?] and I ended up being Sarah, and I was disappointed,” Amy says. “I wanted to be Davina or Rabbi Raquel-they just don’t seem as fucked up. But of course, I was Sarah.” She laughs. “I love her though and I hope people love her despite her foibles. When people say she’s a terrible person, it breaks my heart. I feel like we’ve all done things that are mistakes and cause chaos and that’s being human and I thinks he’s trying. She didn’t have the greatest upbringing. Plus I think characters that are neurotic and narcissistic are funnier and more interesting. I mean, really, do we want to watch someone who is mentally healthy?”

The queerest family on television will also see Maura (Jeffrey Tambor) continue her relationship with Vicki (Anjelica Houston) and deciding to undergo gender reassignment surgery while Shelly (Judith Light) starts to share her story with the world. The season’s theme, according to out writer Our Lady J, will be “coming out of your shell,” and notes there will be several flashbacks to young Maura as a 12-year-old trans girl in the late 1950s, played by out trans actress Sophia Grace Gianna, who Amy raved about.

“She gives, in my opinion, an award-worthy performance and it’s really interesting casting to say young Maura is a girl even though people think pre-transition [she should be played by a boy],” Amy said. “[Our Lady] pointed out, and we’re learning through this process, that the child is the gender the child is. And it might be percieved one way, but that’s not the gender of that child. It’s another blessed year for Miss Soloway.”

Transparent Season 3 premieres September 26 on Amazon Prime.

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