Harrison Ford’s Future In Shrinking Season 4 Officially Revealed After Exit Rumors

Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Shrinking season 3, episode 11, “And That’s Our Time.”Shrinking co-creator Bill Lawrence clarifies whether Harrison Ford will be in season 4.

With the Apple TV series going beyond its original three-season plan and Ford’s character, Paul, moving to Connecticut at the end of Shrinking season 3, episode 10, there has been speculation that he will not continue to be in the series. The season 3 finale also gives Paul’s story closure, as he flies back to California to finally tell Jimmy (Jason Segel) how much he means to him, along with giving Jimmy one last push to move forward.

In an interview with Deadline, Lawrence confirms that Ford is not leaving and will still be in season 4, with Paul continuing to be an important part of the show. He teases that season 4 will jump ahead a couple of years and begin a new story for the characters in the next stages of their lives. Check out Lawrence’s comments below:

I would be insane not to find a way for Harrison Ford to be in the show in perpetuity. He is not disappearing. We tell another story. We’re gonna jump ahead a couple years and see where everybody’s at, and we have a new story to tell. [Harrison Ford] will be part of it. He’s not leaving.

Lawrence’s clarification builds on a social media post he made days before the season 3 finale, saying that he is “Excited to start completely new story next year. Feels scary/risky/fun.” He later added that Shrinking season 4 will have “the EXACT same cast (that’s why we are doing it, we love each other).”

Paul will presumably still be retired and living in Connecticut when season 4 returns, but with a time jump of a couple of years, other aspects of his life will have changed. One particular area will be his Parkinson’s disease, as his symptoms will likely become more severe over time. There can also be more focus on his relationship with his daughter, Meg (Lily Rabe), and his grandson, Mason (Sawyer Jones), now that he is living with them. This opens the door for Rabe to possibly become a series regular after previously being a recurring star.

The narrative challenge with this is that most of Shrinking‘s characters are still living on the opposite side of the country in California. Alice (Lukita Maxwell) is also in Connecticut since she is attending Wesleyan University, making it feasible for her and Paul to share many of their scenes together. However, the series needs to figure out how to continue building on Paul’s relationships with Jimmy, Gaby (Jessica Williams) and other characters despite the geographic distance between them.

As seen in Shrinking‘s season 3 finale, Paul can appear via video chat or by flying across the country, and Jimmy and others can visit Connecticut, but this seems less sustainable than the day-to-day interactions of the last three seasons. How to make this work and keep Paul as a consistent presence is part of the “scary/risky/fun” challenge of season 4, as it is a shift from what has been done for the show’s entire run so far.

In addition to Paul, Jimmy, Alice, Gaby, Meg, and Mason, other characters expected to return in Shrinking season 4 include Sean (Luke Tennie), Liz (Christa Miller), Derek (Ted McGinley), Brian (Michael Urie), Charlie (Devin Kawaoka), Summer (Rachel Stubington), Julie (Wendie Malick), Derrick (Damon Wayans Jr.), and Sofi (Cobie Smulders). All their lives will have changed because of the time jump, such as Brian and Charlie’s daughter no longer being a baby, Liz and Derek being grandparents, and Alice being years into her college experience.

All Shrinking seasons 1-3 episodes are streaming on Apple TV.

Release Date

January 27, 2023

Network

Apple TV

Showrunner

Bill Lawrence

•