‘Fringe’ returns this Friday after a month long hiatus and while it’s no secret that the show is teetering on the “will it or won’t it be renewed for another season” seesaw, executive producers Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman were at Wondercon to give an update of the show’s future and to drop a few surprises.
Fans lined up to ask the hard questions and what was utmost on everyone’s minds was the fate of the show. Pinkner and Wyman gave as honest as an answer as they could:
“For every season, we don’t say anything until we know. It’s really out of our hands. We cannot control it. If you cannot control it, you can’t worry about it. We’re going to make the same show. We’ve never changed our direction for anybody. And that’s all we can offer…We want you guys to feel satiated and feel like you’ve spent four years of your lives investing in something that’s going to pay off. If we are concerned about anything, it’s really not our jobs, it’s how we’re going to leave it with you.”
In other words, they want to continue to deliver a show that is worthy of its fans and to leave them feeling that the investment of the last four years was worth it. If ‘Fringe’ is renewed for another season, Pinkner stated he would love to see the return of fan favorite Charlie Francis. “Kirk Acevedo was spectacular,” declared Pinkner. “… we have talked about bringing Charlie back. At the moment there are no plans to, but that doesn’t mean we’re not open to it.”
The execs also dropped information about Easter eggs that are hidden in each episode:
“You may or may not know that every week, there is an Easter egg imbedded in every episode that teases that next episode. So literally, from the first episode, there has been something that teases some element of the very next episode. And there have been season and series-long Easter eggs floating out there as well. Some of which have been seen and misinterpreted and some of which have never been found.”
If the show doesn’t get picked up, Wyman and Pinkner have thought about how to wrap up the series and have a back up plan in the form of a special comic book edition. “It would be really elaborate,” says Pinkner, “and we would go to town on it and make sure that everything you needed to understand about the show would be in that and pay off that way. That’s our back up plan.”
But don’t head to the comic book store just yet as the encouraging news is that Fox and Warner Bros. Television are actively talking about bringing the show back for a possible shorter 13 episode fifth season if the license fee and show budget could be reworked. So keep your fingers crossed.
In the meantime, here’s a video that was unveiled at Wondercon and shows why ‘Fringe’ is such a great show. It’s a short featuring all of John Noble’s “Walter-isms” and is enough to wonder what more can he say when the series returns with a new episode on Friday, March 23.
