Reba McEntire is excited to turn to the dark side on ‘Big Sky’

Fans are looking forward to seeing country music megastar Reba McEntire join the cast of Big Sky for its third season, but they better not expect her to break out into “I’m A Survivor.” In fact, according to the Reba star herself, they shouldn’t even count on seeing Reba.

“I didn’t want to come on as Reba McEntire,” she revealed in a recent Entertainment Weekly interview. “I wanted to play somebody else. I get to play me all the time. I wanted to be a character, and to be a dark character is even better.”

If the season three promotional spots for the rural procedural’s upcoming season, subtitled Deadly Trails, are any indication, McEntire is getting her wish in spades. She’ll join the cast as Sunny Barnes, the owner and family matriarch of a family of wilderness adventure outfitters, with a chilling history of “missing” customers. And she’s about as far to the dark side of Reba‘s Reba Hart as you can imagine.

“She’ll teach you how to cook a brownie or cut your carotid artery — you just never know which is going to happen,” McEntire told EW.

McEntire was approached by Big Sky showrunner Elwood Reid to join the cast, and she says that she leaped at the opportunity when he described the character. “I fell in love with it. I absolutely loved it,” McEntire told The Music Universe. “Yeah, I play a devious, conniving, scheming woman on one side, and on the other, I’m a really nice gal. I get to play on the screen with Rex Linn — he plays my husband – and a cast of wonderful characters. I love the crew (and) everything about filming Big Sky. I can’t wait for y’all to watch it.”

The season premiere of Big Sky: Deadly Trails airs tonight on ABC.