Shrinking Season 4’s Time Jump Length Revealed By Star

The length of the Shrinking season 4 time jump has been revealed.

Co-creator Bill Lawrence teased before the season 3 finale that he is “Excited to start completely new story next year” for season 4 “with the EXACT same cast.” While speaking with ScreenRant about Shrinking season 4, he added that “everybody will be in a different place. Maybe there’ll be a time jump, maybe there won’t.”

In an interview with The Direct on the Newport Beach TV Fest red carpet, Shrinking star Michael Urie, who plays Brian, has now revealed that there will be a two-year time jump when season 4 begins. Because of this, Brian’s baby will now be a toddler, and hinted at how being a father has changed the character. Check out Urie’s comments below:

So we’ve jumped 30 years—just kidding. It’s two years, we’ve jumped two years, and so now Brian has a toddler instead of a baby, which is a very different thing, and there’s so many ways in which I think at the end of Season 3 Brian was at the beginning of something, even though it was the end of—it was a three season arc, and now we’re sort of resetting, and I feel like Brian was ready to start something new, then, which is the first time you see in those three seasons where you finally see, oh, he’s starting to get it.

And when we pick up in Season 4, I can’t say much, and I don’t know much, but that he spent two years as a father really shows on him [and] you can really see his growth changes. First, it changes the person, and I’m really excited to see where that goes, and as we learn what those two years were like for him, what that means for him, and his relationships with all of his chosen family.

In season 3, Brian is new to being a father and struggling to navigate some of the changes this brings, including in his relationship with his husband, Charlie (Devin Kawaoka). The confirmed two-year jump means that he will be more experienced and likely more comfortable about what it means to be a parent. While this is poised to be the biggest change in Brian’s life, his relationships with Shrinking‘s other characters will also have evolved.

The time jump means plenty of changes for everyone else as well. Alice (Lukita Maxwell) will have been in college for two years and Paul (Harrison Ford) will presumably still be living in Connecticut, unless one or both of these circumstances have shifted. Assuming the circumstances are the same, Jimmy (Jason Segel) will have had to get by with his daughter and father figure being away for most of the year and have built a new life that could potentially include Sofi (Cobie Smulders).

In terms of the other characters, Gaby (Jessica Williams) and Derrick (Damon Wayans Jr.) will be two years into being a married couple, while Liz (Christa Miller) and Derek (Ted McGinley) will be two years into being grandparents. Gaby and Derrick could even have a child of their own at this point, and as for where she is at professionally, the trauma center she was committed to building will no longer be in its earliest stages.

As for what else audiences can expect, Ford previously confirmed Shrinking season 4’s episode count as 12. This is the same number of episodes as season 2 and one more than season 3, which had an hour-long premiere as opposed to the approximate 30-minute runtime of most episodes. When Ford shared this update in mid-May, he also shared that filming would begin the following week.

For Ford’s character, Paul, the time jump means two more years of living with Parkinson’s disease, and his symptoms potentially being more severe than when he was last seen in the Shrinking season 3 finale. His wife, Julie (Wendie Malick), is expected to also be in the new season, along with Paul’s daughter, Meg (Lily Rabe), who are also in Connecticut.

While Wendie and Meg are supportive individuals, a less emotionally healthy character likely to return is Jimmy’s father, Randy (Jeff Daniels). He was introduced in Shrinking season 3 and the strained relationship with his son was left unresolved, but they may now have a new opportunity to set things right.

Release Date

January 27, 2023

Network

Apple TV

Showrunner

Bill Lawrence

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