‘Jane The Virgin’ Season 4: How Gina Rodriguez Helped Cast Tyler Posey

It’s hard introducing new love interests in a show, but “Jane the Virgin” Season 4 managed to make Adam Alvaro (Tyler Posey) such a lovable and endearing character that many fans are hoping he would stick around for more episodes (or even seasons!) to come.

Well, fans actually have Gina Rodriguez, the actress who plays Jane Gloriana Villanueva, to thank for the casting of Posey. The actress told Entertainment Weekly that she really suffered a huge blow when the show killed off Jane’s husband, Michael Cordero (Brett Dier). Dier was not only her acting partner, but also her good friend.

So when the show is looking for someone to play Adam, Jane’s first love, Rodriguez wasted no time in promoting Posey. “I did the cover of Backstage magazine back in 2012 with Tyler before anything had really happened in my life, and he was already in like the third season in ‘Teen Wolf.’ And I loved him so, so dearly that when [showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman] was introducing Adam, it was actually me and the costume designer that were walking across the studio and we were like, ‘Tyler would be unbelievable. He’s finishing ‘Teen Wolf.’ He’s absolutely freaking adorable. He’s the coolest dude ever. He’s a great freaking actor.’ And it happened within like a day,” she said.

When they pitched the idea to Urman, she was all for it. So they immediately offered the role to Posey. “Tyler and I had wanted to work together for forever and it was like done, done, done. And then it happened,” she continued.

Meanwhile, Posey told Vanity Fair that Adam is exactly the guy Jane needs in her life right now, given everything that she has been through. “Jane just went through a really, really heavy time,” Posey said. “Her husband died, and Adam and Jane have history with each other, and you know, Adam’s a sweetheart. And he has everyone’s best interests in mind, and all he wants to do is kinda have fun and I think Jane kind of needs that in her life.”

Posey added that Adam is there to help bring Jane out of the “dark place” that she’s in, so Adam is a “very necessary character” to help Jane move on.

But despite letting go of the pain, Michael will still be a huge part of Jane’s life. Urman told Variety that Michael is still the “most central piece” of her heart, especially since she is releasing a book about their love soon.

“Jane the Virgin” Season 4 airs every Friday on The CW at 9 p.m. EDT.