Kung Fu's Olivia Liang Teases Seeing Darker Sides Of Nicky In Season 3 - Exclusive

Throughout the second season of The CW's "Kung Fu," Olivia Liang's character Nicky Shen confronted a series of increasingly difficult challenges. Not only did she do everything in her power to save San Francisco from Russell Tan (Kee Chan), whose desire to achieve immortality led to all kinds of death and destruction — including a giant earthquake — she also teamed up with her mysterious cousin Mia (Vanessa Yao), a development that led her to become a mentor to her younger family member. After everything Nicky went through, including traveling to another realm to learn about the origins of the bloodlines that left her with supernaturally-enhanced fighting skills, she could probably use a break.

Unfortunately, as the self-appointed vigilante of Chinatown, Nicky is unlikely to get any downtime soon. Season 3 of the series has revealed that Nicky's neighborhood is experiencing a terrible crime wave driven by outside interests that aren't afraid to kill to get what they want. Meanwhile, Nicky's beloved Shifu Pei-Ling (Vanessa Kai) has somehow returned to the land of the living, her boyfriend Henry (Eddie Liu) has taken off to parts unknown, and a new love interest Bo (Ben Levin) is making her wonder if she should consider jumping back into the dating game. 

Clearly, Nicky's life is as complicated as ever, and when Liang recently spoke to Looper about what's coming up for her character, she indicated that things are going to get even more intense for the hero this season.

Olivia Liang revealed that even though Nicky is trying to be a force for good through both her work as a vigilante and her new job as a martial arts instructor, Nicky is also only human. "She's trying to be the best version of herself, but circumstances that we'll see happen throughout the season are going to challenge that," Liang shared. "We're going to see new sides of Nicky, darker sides of Nicky, and it'll be interesting to watch all of that play out. She doesn't take her role as a teacher lightly, and that's part of what the internal struggle is that we'll see this season."

Liang also noted that she's particularly looking forward to the fan reaction to an upcoming episode that will take Nicky to especially emotional places. "I read an outline for an episode we haven't shot yet, Episode 8, and I'm super excited for the audience to see it because I was screaming reading it and weeping because the audience knows something that Nicky doesn't," Liang teased. "We see Nicky go to a really dark place, and that's very exciting for me to start to explore that side of her because we've gotten so comfortable with these characters, and the writers have explored many layers already, so we're going to see new colors from every character this season. This season gets very dark, but still has so much heart and so much humor. We keep getting better, and this season is a testament to that."

The third season of "Kung Fu" airs on The CW on Wednesdays at 9:00 p.m. ET. New episodes are available on the CW website and app the following day.