‘Orange is the New Black’ (2015) – Meet Stella

This Friday, Orange is the New Black will make its return to Netflix for season three of its outing. While the marketing for the new season seems to be rather limited compared to the last two years, the streaming giant has released an all new featurette to get viewers excited for what’s to come.

The new trailer includes a slew of new clips, and a look at the show’s most central relationship: Alex Vause (Laura Prepon) and Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling). In addition, the video also sheds some light on one of the series’ newest inmates, Stella Carlin (played by Australian model/actor Ruby Rose).

The world of Orange is the New Black was largely seen through the eyes of Piper in the show’s first two seasons, to the point where even moments that didn’t feature her still felt like they were being filtered through her worldview. However, thanks to the civil war that took place last season between Vee (Lorraine Toussaint) and Red (Kate Mulgrew) – culminating in the demise of the former thanks to an escaping Rosa (Barbara Rosenblat) – much of the show’s dynamic is shifting… though you’d never know it based on this latest season three preview.

The new season of the show looks to take its focus somewhat off the Piper/Alex relationship (or much of any Piper development for that matter). In its place, more of the supporting cast will be taking center stage in the episodes ahead. In fact, Piper doesn’t even appear in the premiere until about twenty minutes into the episode – which is a far cry from the first two season premieres that featured her as the central character from the very beginning.

Nonetheless, Orange is the New Black appears to be taking its character to interesting places. It will be nice to see Piper deal with a love triangle within the prison where its conflictions are actually visible. The triangle that took place in season one (between Piper, Alex and Larry) never worked too well because Larry was always away from the drama. However, watching Piper struggle with her new found attraction for Stella (while also dealing with her rekindled love for Alex) should stir up some of the lovely soap-opera romance the show has succeeded at for the last two seasons.

For the most part, season 3 is all about re-invention for Orange is the New Black (case in point: Jason Biggs as Larry won’t even be showing up). If Piper was all you cared about, then get ready for a major focus shift in the new year. However, if the supporting players have been more your thing, then you’re going to be very pleased with the upcoming set of episodes.

Orange is the New Black season three debuts on Netflix this Friday, June 12th, 2015.