Luke Parker will apparently be the villain of Hannah Brown's The Bachelorette season, based on the show's season preview trailers, but his family isn't worried and say they'll have his back no matter what.
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"Everything that we know is from the promos and Luke has had a presence in a majority of them, so it's exciting," Luke's sister-in-law, Hannah Parker, told their local Gainesville Times newspaper.
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"We're excited to see how it plays out. Even though the latest promo was not that great, we are just hopeful that they're going to show who Luke really is."
During a trailer that aired at the end of The Bachelorette's reunion special last week, footage from Season 15 -- which just premiered on Monday night -- showed Luke, a 24-year-old import/export manager from Gainesville, GA, being the target of multiple accusations.
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Hannah sat the bachelor down and told him, "Why does every single guy here dislike you?!"
The scene then jumped over to Mike Johnson, a 31-year-old portfolio manager from San Antonio, TX, expressing his frustrations in a confessional.
"We all know that Luke P. is an evil, pathological liar," Mike griped.
Afterward, Luke got all up in a man's face and screamed, "I have been nothing but truthful, and you are not going to mess it up!"
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But Luke's sister-in-law insisted she and the rest of the family are "still excited to see him" on the new The Bachelorette season.
"The promo was kind of rough to watch, but we are still so excited because we know Luke. Luke is funny. He's going to give you a show. So we're excited to be with him and watch it," Hannah Parker said.
Luke's family reportedly found it difficult to watch the trailer that painted the suitor in a negative light, but they are confident his true colors will shine and The Bachelorette will hopefully give him an accurate portrayal.
"We don't know the edit, but we know the man in Luke," the family claimed in a statement.
Mike Parker, Luke's brother, continued, "We don't know the edit that they're going to give him, but we know his character and we have tons of people who have reached out to us. That's been cool to hear the support from people. But overall, I'm excited."
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Luke reportedly watched The Bachelorette premiere with friends and family on Monday night.
"Even though Luke might get put in a tough light or whatever, he's got tons of friends and family that are going to surround him," Mike told Gainesville Times. "So it will be a good atmosphere for him."
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Luke's family told the newspaper they missed him while the suitor was away filming The Bachelorette. Based on the trailers, it appears Luke makes it pretty far into the competition, so he was away for weeks if not months.
Mike and Luke were used to talking to each other every day, according to the newspaper, and seeing each other multiple times during the week.
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Luke, however, wasn't able to rely on his family and friends' support while taping.
"I texted him if not every day, 90 percent of the days he was gone," said Mike Robertson, a Sunday school teacher at the church Luke attends.
"He got a text from me that said, 'Praying for you.' So it allowed me to pray for him while he was gone... [The trailer] is what it is. One thing we do know is who Luke is and what Luke stands for. And no matter what way they spin it, it's not going to change my view of Luke."
Mike also figured The Bachelorette's production team will "over-dramatize things."
"They're going to make drama out of nothing and they're going to mislead in their promos and make things look one way when it's another. They're trying to amp up the story," Mike told Gainesville Times.
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Mike added that he tried to prepare Luke for potential criticism and backlash but it's a daunting task.
"We had some conversations with him to try and prepare him for [competing against 29 guys], but you can't really prepare well for that," Mike said.
"That's not reality, that's not the real world, that's not how dating is in the real world."
Now that Luke is back home, Hannah Parker gushed about how everyone is thrilled.
"We have been going crazy," Luke's sister-in-law noted. "We're excited to let him spend time with his niece and everything... The fact that we couldn't even talk to him, much less see him, it was so hard."
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Although Luke is expected to receive a less-than flattering edit this season, he shined in the premiere episode by comforting Hannah Brown in a time of need and winning her coveted First Impression Rose, as well as a steamy kiss.
The Bachelorette star admitted to Luke she really liked him and couldn't wait to get to know him better, and in return, Luke gushed about being totally smitten with the woman of his dreams.
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