Harlan Coben‘s gripping series, I Will Find You, kept viewers on the edge of their seats with numerous plot twists. However, the most unexpected twist involved none other than Milo Ventimiglia.
Throughout the season, the storyline meticulously built suspense around the mystery of who kidnapped David’s (Sam Worthington) son. The shocking revelation came when Hayden, played by Ventimiglia, was unveiled as the kidnapper. In an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, executive producers Robert Hull and Coben discussed the deliberate nature of this surprising casting choice.
“When you think of someone like Milo, you usually don’t suspect him of being the villain, especially not when he’s third on the call sheet,” Hull shared.
The creative team expressed their appreciation for Ventimiglia’s willingness to embrace such a challenging role. “Fortunately for us, Milo is an actor who prioritizes the quality of the role over everything else,” Hull commented. “We wanted to leverage the audience’s preconceived notions from This Is Us, and Milo himself is such a kind-hearted and genuine person, which made the twist even more effective.”
Renowned author Harlan Coben has become a staple in Netflix’s original series lineup. Known for his captivating crime and thriller novels, Coben has penned 35 books, with 12 successfully adapted for the screen. Under his current deal with Netflix, fans can look forward to more thrilling adaptations in the future, including his upcoming project, Harlan Coben’s Lazarus.
He continued: “That’s why people fall in love with him. And to use that to our advantage of what we’re going to do here was absolutely a gift and absolutely intentional.”
Coben also confirmed that it was “so intentional.”
“Milo is one of the loveliest human beings besides a lovely actor and you immediately think of him and This Is Us and Gilmore Girls and Heroes,” the author added. “He’s such a likable presence that we were able to sort of exploit that. Let’s just say that.”
I Will Find You, which is streaming now, follows David Burroughs (Worthington), who is wrongly imprisoned for the murder of his son then receives information that his son may still be alive.
Milo Ventimiglia has been steaming up our screens for more than a decade. And he’s only gotten hotter with age!
“The biggest challenge for us was also our biggest asset,” Hull recalled about the experience. “Which is that very early on Harlan and I wanted to really shoot in the real world. We didn’t build a lot of sets.”
He added: “We were out on real streets, relocations, real stunts, real wirework, because even with vis effects, there’s nothing that can replace putting an incredible actor in a real location and just letting them bring it to life. Once you do that, your job’s kind of done.”
I Will Find You is streaming on Netflix now.