FRINGE Showrunners Tease Season 4

In a piece for The LA TV Insider Examiner, Fringe writers/executive producers Josh Wyman and Jeff Pinkner dropped some hints about what we might see when the show returns for Season 4 this fall on September 23rd.

At the end of Season 3, Joshua Jackson's character Peter Bishop created a dimensional "bridge" between Earth and the alternate Earth from where he originated.  However, doing so caused him to vanish from reality after things changed so that he never existed.  "Josh’s character, Peter, made a heroic choice," said Pinkner, "and Walter recognizes he might have to sacrifice to save his son, and now we’re fighting the consequences of that."

With Joshua Jackson still listed as remaining with the show as a series regular, it probably won't be long before we see Peter return...somehow.  According to Pinkner, though, he isn't going to be the only one returning.  "Without revealing anything, we have some really -- we have some things we’re very excited about.  We’re bringing back some characters who were among our favorites."

So who does that mean?  Charlie Francis?  Thomas Newton?  Personally, I'm hoping for David Robert Jones.

And if you happen to be foolish enough to not watch one of the best science-fiction series currently on television, Wyman says that the Season 4 opener is a good place to jump on.  "We’ve had a lot of people say ‘We love the promos; we want to figure out time to watch’, but not everyone has time to sit down and watch (three full) seasons, so we tried to make this season like a new pilot.  We did that a little bit last season, too, but it will just be an entry point for people to come in who haven’t seen everything."

He also added, "We always look at it as a new chapter every season.  It’s like you get the book and so you can expect something you did not expect.  We like to say that.  It’s not as easy as ‘Oh, it’s a jump forward.’  We always try to go a little deeper than that."

Wyman and Pinkner originally started with a six-year plan, so as long as the ratings continue to hold up well enough, it's going to be interesting to see if we're at the halfway point or if the overall timetable has been pushed up so that we're now at the homestretch and heading for home.