More Proof That Deja Is The Mysterious Woman From The This Is Us Flash Forward

A This Is Us favorite will not only stick around for season 3 of the family drama, she'll also have an even bigger part to play. According to Deadline, Lyric Ross — who portrays the Pearson's foster child Deja on the hit NBC show — has been upgraded to a series regular for season 3. Could Deja's expanded role tease her involvement in the show's ultimate endgame?

When we last saw Deja in the season 2 finale "The Wedding," the teen was taking a baseball bat to a car belonging to foster dad Randall (Sterling K. Brown), angry at the circumstances that landed her back with the Pearsons in the first place. Then, at the very end of the episode, Randall delivers a toast, which leads to a flash-forward many years into the future. Randall and his now-older, social worker daughter Tess (Iantha Richardson) discuss how they both aren't ready to go see a mysterious "her." Given Deja's behavior at the end of the episode, it's possible that Randall and Tess are reuniting with Deja... wherever she's been.

Creator Dan Fogelman discussed this flash-forward to Entertainment Weekly, explaining that the answer to who Tess and Randall were talking about will come sooner rather than later.

"Part of the fun of any family is looking at somebody in certain time frame or a family in a present-day time frame and hypothetically jumping forward 15 years and [seeing] who’s still in the picture, who’s not in the picture anymore, who has become ill or other," Fogelman told the outlet. "We’ll be slowly getting pieces by process of elimination or more questions…until we get to the answer... and not string it out too long."

Given Ross' expanded role on This Is Us season 3, it's possible that the show will reveal Deja's full arc within the upcoming season. But even if Deja isn't this mystery woman, at least we can look forward to plenty more tear-jerking scenes (courtesy of the ever-talented Ross) in the near future.