“Shrinking” Creator Bill Lawrence Teases 'Risky' Season 4 Reset with a 'Completely New Story'

Deirdre DurkanTue, April 7, 2026 at 3:48 PM UTC

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Harrison Ford and Jason Segel in "Shrinking".Credit: Beth Dubber/Apple TV+ -

Bill Lawrence says Shrinking will pivot after its planned three-season arc of grief, forgiveness and moving forward

Season 4 will introduce a “new story” while keeping the same core cast

The showrunner calls the creative reset “risky” but exciting for where the characters go next

Shrinking creator Bill Lawrence teased what’s ahead for his hit show's next season and how it’s going to look different.

With season 3 of the Apple TV comedy-drama nearing its finale, the co-creator, 57, revealed on X that the fourth season will mark a creative reset for the series, introducing what he describes as a “risky” new direction.

"Season finale and end of this three season story [this] week. Hope you dig it. (Excited to start completely new story next year. Feels scary/risky/fun)," he wrote on X on April 4. "Thanks for watching."

While the ensemble cast will remain intact, the storytelling will pivot away from the show’s original framework. "EXACT same cast (that's why we are doing it, we love each other)," he wrote in an X post.

As Lawrence explained, Shrinking was always envisioned as a three-season arc centered on grief, forgiveness and moving forward, a journey that is now coming to a close.

Harrison Ford and Jason Segel pictured in season two of ShrinkingCredit: Beth Dubber/Apple TV+.

“We always pitched a three season story on #Shrinking grief-forgiveness-moving forward. We wanted to stay true to that and end the way we planned. (So excited to do Season 4 and a new story with the same cast.),” he shared in a post on X on April 4.

Shrinking, which premiered in January 2023, stars Jason Segel as Jimmy Laird, a therapist navigating life as a grieving widower while attempting to repair his relationship with his daughter.

Segel and Ford seen in season three of ShrinkingCredit: Robert Voets/Apple TV+

Harrison Ford costars as his mentor, Dr. Paul Rhoades, with Jessica Williams, Christa Miller, Luke Tennie, Michael Urie, Lukita Maxwell and Ted McGinley rounding out the ensemble cast.

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The series has been widely praised by both critics and audiences, earning multiple Emmy nominations as well as Golden Globe nods for Segel and Ford.

Apple TV+ officially renewed the series for a fourth season earlier this year, ahead of its season 3 premiere in January.

Michael J. Fox, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease when he was 29 in 1991, joined the TV series for season 3. “That’s one thing that’s amazing about Harrison," Fox told Vanity Fair. "I don’t have to convince him I have Parkinson’s, but he had to convince me he had Parkinson’s. What I wasn’t prepared for was how much of his own understanding of the disease he brought to it."

"I mean, I recognized Parkinson’s in his eyes," Fox said of Ford, 83. "The things I was feeling, I recognized in the way he was expressing himself." Ford's performance was so powerful that Fox admitted, "I was just brought to tears by it."

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Segel, Ford and Michael Urie pictured in season 1Credit: Beth Dubber/Apple TV+

Before the actors teamed up on season 3, Ford told PEOPLE he didn't know Fox "very well," though they'd met a few times before.

“His willingness to be part of our show is a great source of inspiration and gives us a real purpose,” Ford said. “It's not just us coming together, two actors. There's a story to tell, and our commitment to the story is what joins us together. I appreciate his willingness to be a part of the show.”

“I've done what I could to acquaint myself with the aspects of the disease that I'm portraying, and I’m at a much different stage of the disease — my character's in a much different stage of the disease than Michael is," Ford continued of his character.

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