With The Hardy Boys airing its third and final season on Hulu this summer, the mysteries of Bridgeport are finally all coming to a head for Frank (Rohan Campbell), Joe (Alexander Elliot), and all their friends. With both supernatural mysteries and typical teenage problems colliding for everyone, it’ll be exciting to see where things end up when the series launches on July 26.

In this one-on-one interview from June 2022 with Collider’s Arezou Amin, series star Adam Swain talks about where his character Chet finds himself in the final season and how he found ways to keep him feeling new and vibrant. He teased Bailee Madison’s highly-anticipated role in Season 3 and dove into the new experiences he gained on this final outing. Since the interview was conducted after Collider’s set visit, he also talked about what it feels like to be fully done with the series and what is coming up next for him.

COLLIDER: What can you tease about Chet’s journey this final season?

ADAM SWAIN: Oh, it’s exciting! What I can see is, for me, there’s a nice bow that gets put on Chet’s story in terms of what he wants to do. So I think him and Belinda [Krista Nazaire] are in a good place throughout the season. There’s kind of the first time throughout the season you see them go through a little bit of tension, but you see them weather that storm. But yeah, I’d say you see a nice bow put on the story of Chet.

What will you miss about making the show?

SWAIN: I miss everybody. I miss everybody. We’re in group chats constantly talking about how much we miss each other. It’s crazy. Even though we wrapped the show physically, when we were still doing ADR, like the post-production stuff, every time that we finished, we would send a message in the group chat and be like, “Okay, that’s a series wrap on Chet,” and, “That’s a series wrap on Frank,” and stuff like that. So, we desperately, desperately miss each other. [Laughs]

When I was on set, and I was talking to you all, it really seems like you guys have this really great, really tight bond, so what was the standout moment for you making this final season?

SWAIN: Everybody brought their A-game this year. We’ve all brought our A-game and wanted to do the best that we could in every season that we put out, but there’s just something about this season, like, “Okay, guys, this is our last one. Let’s give it our all.” Everyone from the crew to the cast to the writers to the director. We all came in, and we were like, “Okay, we’re gonna try and put down some of our best work,” and that’s exactly what people did. And I think those long nights, those weekends where we just got to talk about the show, talk about our characters, what we want to do with certain scenes, I think we just all found similarities in how much we just love having a good time and how much we just love what we do. And when you find people that are passionate about what they do, it’s always gonna be a good group of people to be around.

Image via Hulu

On the flip side of that, what was your biggest challenge, maybe in this last season, maybe in the series overall?

SWAIN: The biggest challenge for me, I’d say, was what ways could I keep Chet new? Like, how can I not become comfortable with this storyline or with this scene or with Chet, being like, “Okay, so he’ll just say this, that and the other.” What ways can I challenge myself as an actor and challenge myself as a storyteller through this one character, but still trying to find these layers for it?

I remember one time in Season 2, one of the biggest challenges I had– Because it was after COVID, right? And there’s like that moment of, like, all of us first started, did our first scene, and we’re all like, “Okay, how do we act again? How do we be in character again?” So I’d say, even more than anything in Season 3 and of filming The Hardy Boys, was just navigating that whole new post-COVID world, or I guess mid-COVID world. But, hey, we pushed through and were able to put on a good.

I can’t wait to see the new season. I binged the first two, I cannot wait.

SWAIN: It’s such a bingeable show. It really is. I can’t wait for folks to see it.

Was there anything maybe that you didn’t get the chance to do in previous seasons that you got the chance to finally do in Season 3?

SWAIN: I got to do it in Season 2, but I’d say I got to do a little more stunt stuff this season, which for me, I’m an athlete, I used to be in competitive sports, so for me doing stunts and jumping off of things and tackling people, that is so fun to me. So that was one cool thing that I was able to kind of branch into this season that we didn’t really fully have on the first couple of seasons. I got to navigate this whole new physical side of Chet, which was super fun.

I asked your co-stars this, and I want to ask you too; what would you say, if you had to pick one, is Chet’s theme song? You can think about that and we can come back to it.

SWAIN: Can we come back to that?

Image via Hulu

So let me ask you then, with the show now over, were you tempted to take anything home from set? Did you take anything home from set?

SWAIN: Oh, you know we were all being stupid and raiding the whole entire set! I’m not gonna snitch on anybody else, but I’ll tell what I took. I for sure—for no reason—took a dartboard [laughs]. It was in JB’s [Atticus Mitchell] house, there is no reason for me to have this dartboard. It is literally just sitting in my room, taking up space. I’ve already lost the darts. That’s what I’ve taken from set. And I did take some jackets, I’m not gonna lie. I took some jackets, they gave me some jackets.

I mean, that era of style is coming back.

SWAIN: It is, it is. So I thought I’d hop on it quick.

Is there a moment this season that you’re really excited for fans of the show to get to experience?

SWAIN: I’m excited for fans to experience Bailee Madison. I was very excited when I found out that she was gonna be on this season because I kind of grew up watching her, so that’s always cool to meet someone that you always grew up watching. I had no doubt about it, but she is a beast in what she does, in everything. Just the advice that she gave to everybody on career stuff, on acting, on how long she’s been in the industry. She’s been torn down by the industry, she’s been built up by the industry. She’s really gone through it, and you can see how much she actually cares about what she does. It comes out in her performance. She has one scene that’s just incredible, and we have never done anything like this in the show, and we were all kind of excited to see it because we had no idea how it was gonna go, and she came in and killed it. So I’m very excited for people just to see Bailee’s character Drew and how she fits into the whole puzzle.

What do you hope fans take away from this season?

SWAIN: I hope that fans get the resolve that they were looking for for this season and for the show, and that they get answers. And they just really see how much love went into that show. And is that something that you could feel through your screen? Yeah, just to make them feel something that they’ve never felt before in watching a show like that. So if people could just feel the effort, time, love that not even just the actors, but the crew went through, taking time from their families and the amount of excellence that was poured into it. If that effort and that love and care gets shown through, then that’s a job well done for me.

Alright, so before we circle back to find out what Chet’s theme song would be, I want to know what’s next for you now that The Hardy Boys is over.

SWAIN: I’m wanting to venture into doing more movies because that’s just one thing that I haven’t done yet. I’ve had the honor and pleasure of completing another show called A Million Little Things and just being able to learn a lot about the TV side of acting. Next is movies. I’m wanting to start breaking into that and doing some music of my own. I’m part of a rap group called Music is also my other passion and I’m kind of wanting to keep that little part alive while we’re trying to get these movies.

Nice. Alright, let’s have that song.

SWAIN: Oh god! There are just so many songs that come to my head! I would say– how much more time do we have? [Laughs] We’d have to be here for a whole five minutes talking about this. I’d say Stevie Wonder, “Superstitious.”

Ooh!

SWAIN: Because Chet is actually kind of a little superstitious, a little bit.

I like it, it’s a classic.

SWAIN: He wants things done in a certain way, and he thinks that if this rhythm is kept up in this way, then things will have a certain effect. That’s one of the many songs that I’d say sum up Chet.

The Hardy Boys Season 3 begins streaming on July 26.