New ‘13 Reasons Why’ trailer shifts from teen suicide to teen murder

Netflix’s provocative series “13 Reasons Why” — which in two seasons has traveled through suicide, rape and a potential school shooting — is moving on to a less controversial topic: murder.

Thursday’s trailer for the show’s third season sets up a murder-mystery investigation that appears set to ensnare the entire teen group at Liberty High, whom we are reminded are “connected by their secrets.” (And you’ll be connected to spoilers from the first two seasons if you read much further, so watch out.)

At Liberty, the jocks and the people who are definitely not jocks are still up in each other’s grills, and the tension remains high. Police are on the hunt. Blood is spilled, though none of it by suicide. And apparently there will still be enough drama left for a fourth and final season after this one, a Netflix representative confirmed Thursday.

“Deputy Standall,” a voice-over intones in the trailer, “here’s the thing about kids from Liberty High. They’re connected by their secrets. Connected, and forever changed.”

Season 2 left us with Clay holding a big gun in the parking lot outside the school, having successfully talked Tyler out of shooting up the school dance, watching Tony peel away with Tyler in his red 1968 Mustang. Police sirens scream in the distance, perhaps because someone defied Clay’s directive to call no cops.

Is that the scene we are thrust into in the trailer? Or is it a crime that happened somewhere else entirely? That’s unclear. But the police are definitely on the hunt for who killed big man on campus/rapist Bryce Walker. Yes! In Season 3, Bryce is literally a dead man, the trailer reveals.

It also directs viewers to visit whokilledbrycewalker.com, which via mobile device can take a person into an intense interactive interview with sheriff’s Deputy Bill Standall, father of suicide-attempt survivor Alex Standall, and then possibly into a guilt-laden sitdown with Bryce’s mom.

The new season of “13 Reasons Why” starts streaming Aug. 23 on Netflix.