The end is nigh for Violet (Malina Weissman), Klaus (Louis Hynes), and Sunny Baudelaire (Presley Smith), but A Series of Unfortunate Events showrunner Barry Sonnenfeld promises that the third and final season of Netflix's adaptation of Lemony Snicket's miserable children's series is "the most emotional season yet. It's got a lot of action, and the kids have become much more proactive and less victims."

Adapting the final four books of the series — The Slippery Slope, The Grim Grotto, The Penultimate Peril, and The End — season 3 follows the Baudelaire orphans as they continue to evade the villainous Count Olaf (Neil Patrick Harris) while digging deeper in the mysterious secret organization that has been part of their lives since the beginning. While some fans may have been disappointed by The End’s open-ended conclusion, Sonnenfeld assures EW that he, the writers, and author Daniel Handler worked together to craft an ending that remained true to the final book but also expanded on it.

"When you see 'The End', you'll think that it's what Daniel always had in mind, though it’s not,” he says. “It wraps up in such a strong way that you may think we came up with the idea at the beginning of the first season.”

Click through to get a first look at season 3.