’13 Reasons Why’ Star Timothy Granaderos Teases Bryce’s Death & Monty’s Motives

Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why is giving viewers one very big reason to watch Season 3 with the major reveal that its villain Bryce Walker (Justin Prentice) is dead.

While the mystery and curiosity will draw fans in beginning Friday, August 23, it’s clear that everyone’s a suspect in the former Liberty High student’s murder. One of the potential killers includes Bryce’s former best friend Montgomery “Monty” de la Cruz (Timothy Granaderos).

Towards the end of Season 2 we saw just how brutal Monty could be when he sodomized Tyler (Devin Druid) in retaliation for messing up the school’s athletic schedule by vandalizing the fields. Bryce also cut ties with Monty for intimidating witnesses in the court case regarding Hannah Baker’s (Katherine Langford). Could the events of Season 2’s end lead to the ultimate crime committed by Monty? Granaderos fills us in below.

It’s safe to say that next to Bryce, Monty is one of the show’s least likable characters. Will viewers have a change of heart heading into Season 3?

Timothy Granaderos: Yes, I would hope so. It’s by no means a redemption story, but you do get some insight into Monty’s home life and some of his vulnerabilities. So I think Season 3 will humanize him a little bit and viewers might have a different opinion of him, hopefully, by the end.

(Credit: Andrew Gleason)

Do you think Monty’s learned from his past actions and could become a better person or is all lost for him?

I think he did the things in the past season mainly out of his loss for the people he cared about. He protected Bryce because he loved him, even though he would never admit that, but Bryce was his closest family. So I don’t think he would ever take back what he did because one of Monty’s strongest personality traits is loyalty. Maybe he wouldn’t be so extreme in some cases, but I think he would do anything to protect his friends.

Monty also assaulted Tyler in one of Season 2’s most upsetting scenes – will there be follow-up on that storyline?

Yeah, it’s definitely addressed, and Monty will be, in some ways, forced to deal with his actions. I can’t exactly say what will happen but it doesn’t go away. It will resurface for Monty.

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In Season 2 it was revealed that Monty witnessed Bryce’s rape of Hannah. Is there any remorse there for him or does Season 3 focus mostly on Bryce?

Season 1 and 2 were definitely more about Hannah’s story, Season 3 kind of moves on. It is centered around the murder of Bryce Walker and amplifies the idea of everyone is a suspect and a key player. We’ve moved on from the Hannah story unfortunately, because I miss Katherine Langford [Laughs].

You’re looking very paranoid in the Season 3 trailer. What can you tease about Bryce’s surprising death?

Monty is as prime of a suspect as anyone else. The fallout between him and Bryce was such a monumental moment in his life because in the aftermath of that breakup, Monty was kind of left alone. Bryce wasn’t just his friend and his teammate, but he was really his family which Monty doesn’t necessarily have the strongest of, so that hurt him in ways that can’t be described. So what happens to someone when they’re left alone like that and one of the only people they trust and love abandons them? It should be interesting.

(Credit: Netflix)

When you learned that the show would be killing off Justin Prentice’s character, what was your initial reaction?

It was honestly just shock and awe. I found out separately, it was early on before we started shooting. I had a dinner with our executive producer and showrunner Brian Yorkey, and he started the dinner with that, and I was kind of numb for a couple minutes just because that character’s so integrated into the story. Justin is so integrated in my life, immediately, I was like, “Oh, s**t. Is Justin Prentice not coming back to the third season?” I think it’ll be fun for the viewers. Fun for us, for sure.

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What kind of setup should fans expect to see for Bryce’s death?

The cool thing about this season is we don’t waste any time. From the first few episodes, we jump right into it, so I think that makes it very bingeable. People are going to cruise through this season really quickly because they’re going to want to know [who killed Bryce]. There’s so many cliffhangers — it’s like a murder mystery, everyone’s a suspect — so I’m really curious to see who people think are the main suspects early on.

(Credit: Andrew Gleason)

You’re dealing with heavy topics in this show. What do you do to lighten things up when you’re not filming?

We do big dinners, and some of us started playing golf even though we’re really bad at it. We goof off, we tell jokes and we laugh a lot. We do pretty much everything we can do to stay distracted from the content because you want to do your best work, but then you want to be able to leave it behind.

13 Reasons Why, Season 3, Friday, August 23, Netflix