Leverage: Redemptionrevives the original TNTLeverageseries, providing a great opportunity to revisit characters from that original show. The revival sees most of the original crew of criminals teaming up to take down wealthy bad guys and corporations to help out their victims. While four of the main cast members were also main characters in the original series,Leverage: Redemptionhas also made an effort to maintain continuity by bringing in other familiar faces.
Drew Powell and Jeri Ryan both guest-starred in the original show and reprised their roles in the revival, and their guest appearances have made for some fantastic episodes. While some fan-favorites like Archie Leach (Richard Chamberlain) and Captain Bonanno (Robert Blanche) will likely never appear because their actors have passed away, and they are unlikely to be recast, there are plenty ofLeveragecharacters thatLeverage: Redemptionseason 4could still revisit.
8Agents McSweeten And Taggert
Played By Gerald Downey (In Six Episodes) And Rick Overton (In 3 Episodes) In Leverage
This pair of FBI agents first appears in the very first season ofLeverage. While Agent Taggert appears, partnered up with Agent McSweeten, through season 2, McSweeten appears in every season of the original show at least once. They areintroduced as field agents who can never seem to catch a break in their investigationsuntil theLeverageteam starts throwing a helping hand their way.
They start off bumbling and mostly inept, but McSweeten’s continued appearances in the show hint that he might just know that the Agent Hagen (really Beth Riesgraf’s Parker) he has met multiple times might be more than an FBI agent. The agents have been name-checked inLeverage: Redemption, but they have not appeared.
Characters like these can provide a nice window into who in law enforcement is accepting of theLeverageteams. Their long-termworking relationship with Parker and Hardison (Aldis Hodge) would be fascinating to see play out. Do they have files on them? Are Parker and Hardison’s FBI cover identities considered real employees? Do they send tips one another’s way? The possibilities are endless.
7Olivia Livingston
Played By Ayla Kell In Leverage Season 4, Episode 10
Olivia Livingston appears in a single episode ofLeverage, but her single appearance packs quite a punch. She appears as a teen competing in a chess tournament. While Nate (Timothy Hutton) and his team are hired as part of a con during the tournament, Nate figures out that they are really being used as a distraction so that recurring character Sterling (Mark Shepphard) can reconnect with Olivia, his daughter.
Olivia’s first appearance served to flesh Sterlingout in a great way. At the time, Sterling was only used as a foil for Nate without much knowledge of his personal life. Since Olivia is never under any illusion about Nate and his team, the team would not have to hide their activities from her in the revival. Seeing her again would provide the show a way to check in with Sterling as well.
It seems unlikely that Sterling will make an appearance since he works for Interpol, andthe show now has Astrid (Alexandra Park), Sophie’s stepdaughter, as their link to the international law enforcement organization, sobringing in Olivia would be a way to potentially get inside Sterling’s personal lifeagain.
6Mr. Conrad
Played By Andy McCone In Leverage Season 4, Episode 11
Season 4 of Leverage actually has a lot of episodes that leave threads open for the show to revisit. Just as Olivia Livingston appears in one episode of season 4, so does the mysterious Mr. Conrad.He is revealed as a CIA operativein the episode in which he appears, one of the few government organizations that the group does not tangle with during the original run of the show.
Mr. Conrad has been protecting the members of a fraternity from law enforcement in the episode. The fraternity does illegal experiments, mostly on homeless people, and when one of their experiments sees a man end up dead, the Leverage team steps in to figure out why, complete with Hardison going undercover as a college student and Eliot (Christian Kane) as a homeless military veteran to be picked for the experiments.
Mr. Conrad threatens Nate about getting his attention at the end of the episode, soit does seem like the original series intended to revisit the idea of the CIA keeping an eye on the team at some point. With the show canceled during season 5, however, it never got the chance. IfLeverage: Redemptioncould find a way to pay off the storyline without Nate, the audience would finally get closure on the cryptic threat.
5Molly Connell
Played By Lea Zawada In Season 4, Episode 6 Of Leverage
There are a lot of episodes in the originalLeverageseries in which children end up in the middle of a con.Leverage: Redemptionexplored the idea in “The Date Night Job,” but it would be nice to revisit one of those children andsee how their interactions with the team might have influenced them during their formative years.
One of those children (who is actually played by an actor who is still active in the industry, unlike so many of the child actors who appeared in the show) is Molly Connell. Molly is the daughter of the mark in “The Carnival Job,” but when she is kidnapped, the team decides to help rescue her instead of sticking with the original con. Molly particularly bonds with Eliot in the episode, who pretends to work for a security company and is instrumental in rescuing her.
Molly is one of the great child characters in the original series because, despite her fear of what is happening and the grief she has been experiencing after the loss of her mother, she pays attention to what Eliot tells her and is able to actually aid him during her rescue. It would not be a shock to find that Molly grew up to become involved with Leverage: International herself.
“The Carnival Job,” in which Molly appears, is directed by Frank Oz, the voice actor of Yoda.
4Amy Palavi
Played By Aarti Mann In Season 5, Episode 8 Of Leverage
Parker does not have many friends outside of the team. The friends she does make are usually related to one of the jobs the team pulls, andAmy is one of Parker’s few friends who is not part of a con. Instead, Amy is someone whose life Parker saves when Amy is supposed to be the one watching out for her.
“The Broken Wing Job” centers on Parker, who, with an injury to her leg, is not out on a con with the rest of the team. Instead, she is stuck in the apartment above the brew pub that Hardison owns. In an homage toRear Window, Parker watches the security feed and realizes that a pair of customers are planning some sort of crime. While Amy is the one checking in on her and bringing her meals, Parker does not realize that Amy is their target until it is almost too late.
Amy and Parker bond during the experience. It’s never made clear if Amy knows exactly what it is her boss, his girlfriend, and their friends do outside of the brew pub, but she does seem perfectly at ease hanging out with them after almost being kidnapped. Amy knowing that she could turn to Parker for help in the future could make a return appearance from her an easy one.
3Colin Mason AKA Chaos
Played By Wil Wheaton In 3 Leverage Episodes
Colin Mason is a little different from the charactersWil Wheaton is best known for. Here, he is a villain, a chaotic one at that. In fact, his hacker handle in the show is Chaos.
Chaos often acts as a nemesis for Hardisonin his appearances. The two go head-to-head trying to get access to the same security systems, and even work together once. Chaos brings out a part of Hardison’s character not seen often. Hardison is typically laid back and confident in his abilities. Chaos challenges him, leaves him a little less confident, and even angers him.
While Hardison is not inLeverage: Redemptionoften because of Aldis Hodge’s other commitments,it could be just as interesting to see Chaos interact with Breanna. Hacking in the show has changed from the original episodes, and seeing how Chaos has changed his tactics, if he is still a criminal, and whether Leverage International has been keeping tabs on him could be interesting to pursue.
2Maggie Collins
Played By Kari Matchett In 4 Leverage Episodes
Maggie Collins is the ex-wife of Nate Ford. She appears in a handful of episodes, usually because she has become caught up in one of the cons the Leverage team is running.
Maggie is an expert in several different types and eras of artwork, so she accidentally ends up playing a part in cons, usually coached by Sophie and Parker. She also ends up framed for theft, and the team helps clear her at one point. Parker even packs Maggie a go-bag and explains different aspects of being successfully on the run to her in case they cannot help her. Parker and Sophie become friends with her outside of her previous relationship with Nate.
While it’s unlikely Maggie would return to the Leverage world since she usually entered it as a result of Nate’s presence, it would still be interesting to see her again. After all, she has benefited from the work of the Leverage team and would be a great resource for the Leverage International teams. It does not seem like they would have cut ties with her completely, andit would be good to see that she still has a relationship with the team despite Nate’s absence.
1Nana
Nana Has Not Yet Appeared In Leverage Or Leverage: Redemption
Nana is not someone theLeverageaudience has seen in the flesh. Instead, she is someone who has been repeatedly referenced in both the original series and the revival series. Nana is the name given to the woman who raised Hardison and Breanna. Hardison describes her as a woman who “cusses like a sailor” and is not immune to some tough love tactics, but is also fiercely protective of the children she fosters.
Breanna is welcomed by the Leverage team in the revival after she followed in Hardison’s footsteps, and the FBI comes to Nana’s looking for her. Theteam has pulled strings to get kids placed in Nana’s carewhen they are left without guardians because it turns out the person responsible for their care is actually a criminal trying to kill them. That means if Nana appeared in the series, there is also the chance to see how some of the other kids in her care are faring.
It would also be interesting tosee the world Breanna and Hardison came from. The two are supportive of one another and competitive, and never afraid to voice their opinions. They also both have big personalities, and just how Nana raised them to be so sure of themselves in an unsure world would be fun to see.
Executive Producer Dean Devlin has voiced his desire to include Nana in the show before, and eventold ScreenRant the show would include Nana in season 4if it gets renewed. That seems reason enough to hope forLeverage: Redemptionseason 4.
