Prison Break returns for a fourth season Monday, picking up from Season 3’s finale while also introducing some major new story points. Of course one plot point has already been widely revealed and publicized – the return of Dr. Sara Tancredi, despite the fact that she was apparently decapitated last season.

I recently sat down with several key members of the Prison Break cast, including Wentworth Miller (Michael Scofield), Dominic Purcell (“Lincoln Burrows”), Jodi Lyn O’Keefe (“Gretchen”) & Robert Knepper (“T-Bag”) and the woman behind Dr. Sara, Sarah Wayne Callies. We discussed Season 4, what’s to come, and of course Sara’s incredible return.

IGN TV: Your show really changes up every season, which I imagine is nice as an actor.
Wentworth Miller: Yeah, I think that’s one of our strengths. It’s one of the things we’re noted for, is that we’re not afraid to take what we know works and throw it out and start from scratch every season. And the fourth season’s really no different, in that it’s not really about breaking out anymore, it’s about breaking in.

IGN: The dynamic between the brothers keeps changing too.
Miller: Yeah, it’s a really interesting balance between Michael and Lincoln – kind of which one is the older brother and when? I feel like in the first season, even though Michael is the younger brother, he was the one with the plan; he was the one kind of giving orders. And then in the second season, as Michael dealt with the sort of emotional and psychological fallout of that escape and all the lives that were damaged or ruined, so that Lincoln could go free, Lincoln was the one who was literally behind the wheel and being there for his brother.

IGN: Last season ended with your character having some major motivation.
Miller: [Laughs] Yeah, yeah. On this mission to avenge Sara’s death! …Now wait a minute!

IGN: [Laughs] Now wait a second…! Can you talk at all about how Season 4 picks up?
Miller: The new season picks up a month after the third season left off, so we wrap up a lot of different storylines and loose ends really quickly and then hit the ground running. So Sara comes back – that seems to be everywhere, so it’s not a spoiler I guess. And she’s back in the first episode, and we have this A-Team assembled – Michael, Lincoln, Sara and a bunch of old friends and foes, and they decide to stay and fight – to take on The Company and the conspiracy, as opposed to running for the rest of our lives. They see that that’s no longer a viable option. So in a way they go to work for the government, to take on this [threat].

IGN: Jodi’s character was the target you were after, but it turns out she didn’t do what you thought she did. How does he perceive her now?
Miller: That’s an interesting shift. I think at this point, with Agent Kellerman and Gretchen, they’ve all been kind of deadly and menacing in their own right, but they’ve been puppets. Someone else has been pulling the strings all along. I think this is the season where Michael and Lincoln decide it’s time to go after the puppet master.

IGN: What did you think when you heard about bringing Sara back? It seemed pretty permanent how they’d written her off!
Miller: [Laughs] They seemed to deal with that rather definitively! But I thought it made sense. I thought she’s such an important part of the story and I thought it was a mistake to let her go, because she really, at least for my character, kind of brought his heart to the surface. And without her, he was walking a very dark road or starting to walk it. At the end of Season 3, Michael manipulates that tunnel so that it collapses on a fellow inmate, so in essence he has killed somebody. The interesting question now that Sara comes back is, is he still the man that she fell in love with? Is she someone that she can still recognize? Is he worthy of what she has to offer? So I’m excited for those possibilities and I love working with Sarah, so it’s a plus in my book.

IGN: You’ve not only changed the dynamic of the show but also where you film several times. Has that helped keep the series fresh?
Miller: Absolutely. Environment, locale, has always been key to our success. First season was when we had the luxury of working in Joliet State Penn outside of Chicago, a place that was rich in history and atmosphere and I think gave us a kind of legitimacy and credibility that allowed us to be sort of comic book on top of that. Because the show is fantastic – we get away with all kinds of crap, but at the same time, it felt real, because we were shooting in a real place, not some soundstage in Burbank. And then in the second and third season, with Dallas, that offered us a relatively harsh landscape. The wide open road and the heat and the dust and the flies. It made life outside of Fox River seem even worse than life back in prison. And all that helps in terms of selling the characters’ struggle and their fight to survive. And the fourth season, I’m just excited to be in LA, because it’s home. [Laughs] It’s nice to crawl into your own bed at night. You can’t put a price on that.

IGN: Your producers talked early on by having a three-year plan of sorts. The strike obviously changed things considerably, cutting Season 3 short. Where do you see Prison Break going in the future? It’s survived through a lot of iterations. Do you think it’s a show that could continue past this coming season and would you like to see a wrap up to Michael’s story?
Miller: We’ll see. I always thought there was a beginning and a middle and an end to a show like Prison Break, but I’ve always said that what they wanted to do — because it’s TV and when you find something that works, they want to keep running with it — What they want to do is figure out a way to get us all in a van, moving town to town, solving crimes. [Laughs]. And the fourth season feels a little like they’ve accomplished that, which means it could potentially go on for another season or two. I personally feel as though I’d like to see things wrapped up for my character sooner rather than later. I love the show very much, but there are other things that I want to do and I don’t want to run the risk of getting pigeonholed as Michael Scofield and having to kind of work against that for five to ten years, post-show.

IGN: Well, one can only wear so many variations on prison garb.
Miller: Yeah, it’s nice to switch it up a little bit. Wear a suit from time to time – doctor’s garb, whatever. [Laughs].

Source: http://tv.ign.com