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NEW YORK, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- Dulé Hill said his wedding-obsessed title character becomes a bit of a "groomzilla" in the new Peacock comedy movie, Psych 3: This is Gus. The film, premiering Thursday, is a sequel to 2020's Psych 2: Lassie Come Home, 2017's Psych: The Movie and Psych the TV series, which ran from 2006 to 2014.
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The franchise stars Hill as Gus, the lifelong best friend and partner of private detective Shawn (James Roday Rodriguez), who has an eidetic memory and pretends to be psychic to explain the keen observation skills he employs to solve crimes in California.
The latest installment of Psych finds the guys investigating the past of Gus' pregnant fiancee, Selene (Jazmyn Simon).
"Gus is very organized. He is very on-point. He is the opposite of Shawn, so with this [wedding], he is on top of everything. I'm sure it's a lot for Shawn. It's a lot for Selene, but it is exactly how Gus wants it to be," Hill said during a recent New York Comic Con panel discussion with his castmates.
Psych 3 also finds Shawn having to adapt to his buddy entering a different stage of life without him.
"Gus has been ahead of Shawn since the day he came out of the womb," Rodriguez joked.
"It is sobering because the plan was to always live next door to each other and have adjoining water slides," he added. "But I think the overriding emotional spine for Shawn is that he always wants his best friend to be happy."
Simon said she was excited by the direction in which the writers wanted to take her character in this new adventure.
"I shook my head. I laughed until I cried," Simon recalled of reading the screenplay.
"I loved it. It felt very on-brand for her. I thought [the writers] were so creative because she is such an oddball, and she is such a fun character to play that I feel like everybody will be like, 'Yeah, that seems about right.'"
Hill acknowledges Gus hasn't always had the best taste in romantic partners.
"I thought this time he was finally going to do it right, but, of course, something has to come up along the way," Hill teased without giving away spoilers.
"You have to watch to see how the movie plays out. Hopefully, with this go-around, it will all work out in the end for Gus. At least, for right now."
While not quite rivaling Gus and Shawn's longtime brotherhood, Selene and police detective Juliet O'Hara (Maggie Lawson) continue to develop their friendship in Psych 3.
"It's the best because Jazmyn and I, in real life, are very close, so that is so fun," Lawson said.
"We never actually see [Juliet] have a friend. I love that we are playing that like, nothing is going to break my bond with Selene. I finally have this friend so I am protecting her at all costs."
Also returning for Psych 3 is Timothy Omundson, who plays Police Chief Carlton Lassiter.
In real life, Omundson suffered a massive stroke in 2017. His condition was incorporated into the second Psych movie by showing Lassiter recovering from serious injuries sustained in an ambush on the job.
"The great thing about this is Lassiter's recovery really mirrors my actual recovery," Omundson said.
"He's up on his feet and he's walking a little bit more now. He's able to talk," he added. "It's nice thinking how far I've come and how far Lassiter's come."
The actor thanked his Psych family for not only including him in the new project, but also for helping him through his recuperation these past four years.
"This cast and crew and writers and producers have really just buoyed me the entire time and supported me universally," Omundson said. "Had I fallen, they would have been right there to pick me up."
Omundson is still attempting to navigate life using his "new brain" and "new body." The Lassiter he portrays in Psych 3 is doing the same.
"Emotionally, he really walks that line between trying to figure out what he is and what he wants to do," Omundson said.
Corbin Bernsen, who plays Shawn's retired cop dad, Henry, said working with Omundson was one of his favorite parts of shooting Psych 3.
"It was so encouraging to watch Tim's recovery and how hard he's fought his way back up. He's brilliant in the movie," Bernsen said.
The actor said this latest installment in the Psych series demonstrates a maturity in its writing, acting, direction and even the editing.
"It feels like a 'grown-up Psych,'" Bernsen said. "That doesn't mean it's bad and it's not fun."
