Hallmark’s Leading Men Step Into A New Era

On the Vancouver set of Three Wiser Men and a Boy, I see plenty of Christmas trees and pretend snow, the types of wintertime motifs Hallmark devotees have come to expect from the network’s seasonal rom-coms. And amid all the visible holiday cheer, it might seem paradoxical to hear actor Paul Campbell talk about themes like mental health and masculinity — especially wearing a candy-cane costume. But then again, this is a movie that thrives in the juxtaposition of festive fun and vulnerability.

Out Nov. 23, Three Wiser Men and a Boy is the sequel to the massively successful Three Wise Men and a Baby, the most-viewed cable movie of 2022. In the first film, the titular Brenner brothers — Stephan (Paul Campbell), Luke (Andrew Walker), and Taylor (Tyler Hynes) — are forced to reckon with their own dysfunction when a struggling single mom leaves her baby boy, Thomas, in their care over the holidays.

When the sequel picks up five years later, the boy and mom have become part of the family. The brothers are helping Thomas put on a holiday musical at school, while struggling to accept their mother (Gossip Girl’s Margaret Colin) is pursuing a new relationship.

To the degree that Hallmark is a bellwether for what audiences want in a leading man, Three Wise Men and its sequel suggest a taste for something new — vulnerable, imperfect heroes in lieu of the alpha males or blank, brooding canvases you might expect to find in a neat, 90-minute rom-com.

Fortunately, treading heavier territory doesn’t have to come at the expense of the genre’s dedicated fans. Campbell, who co-wrote the original and sequel, was heartened to see viewers respond to the first film’s conversations about masculinity and single parenthood. “We deal with mental health, anxiety, people feeling less than, people struggling in their career. ... We’re telling stories about the human condition,” he says. “We’re not in a bakery having a bake-off and cupcake contest.”

That’s no shade to Hallmark’s culinary oeuvre. Movies about gingerbread houses and smoldering chocolatiers are part of what’s made the network such familiar, well, comfort food. But Campbell is pointing out that if you think Hallmark only has room for the frothiest heroes, that’s not quite the case these days.

His character is a pet therapist who has anxiety; Luke is a firefighter who’s struggled with the weight of holding his family together since their father left them; and Taylor is a video game designer who shuts people out, as if stuck in the throes of his troubled adolescence.

These foibles don’t just fuel the cathartic humor of the movie. “Fans see themselves reflected in these stories, and they’re more relatable than they ever have been,” Campbell says.

“We want to see frailty,” says Kimberley Sustad, his co-writer and frequent collaborator. “I mean, you look at Ken from the Barbie movie. He’s like the picture-perfect Hallmark hunk, but seeing the cracks is what made that whole arc.”

Take the memorable van scene from the first film, in which the brothers get candid about how their father’s abandonment affected them and their coping mechanisms. Hynes’ character, seated in the back, even wipes away tears. It’s not a traditional rom-com scene, per se, but it communicates a self-awareness that’s attractive in any potential partner.

As an actor, Hynes welcomes the chance to peel back his character’s gruff exterior — especially given how the actor’s fans playfully dub him Hallmark’s “bad boy.”

“There seemed to be a tendency to be very wholesome. Very polished,” he tells me. “I thought, ‘Well, there’s an obvious thing I can poke at.’”

The care they put into their roles can be felt behind the scenes, too. Watching from the side as the cast takes promotional photos, one crew member remarks that the guys have restored her faith in men.

Honestly, if there’s one big takeaway from my trip, it’s that Hallmark’s busiest leads — they’re collectively in five films this season and 14 across the brand’s 2024 slate — know how to be welcoming and fun while still taking their crushworthy characters seriously.

“I think this is the big misconception with Hallmark movies: that you can just get the script, show up on set, and fall in love,” Walker says. “If I’m not extremely prepared, I’m not going to have an actual opinion.”

The work pays off. If Hallmark movies are known for a kind of aspirational romance, the messy heroes of Three Wise Men and its sequel bring that fantasy a little closer to Earth.