This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that the show’s upcoming Season 4 will be a series of “restarts” for the beleaguered Pearson clan, who faced their future in the series’ shocking Season 3 finale.
“Restarts for everybody,” Fogelman said to EW . “And midpoints. I think it’s going to be very ambitious and sprawling in terms of how it plays with time. Many of our characters are in the middle of their stories, and that’s a point where characters are opening up to new things and new things are starting.”
“That becomes a very exciting period for almost all of the characters, and for some of them, maybe a very scary period in terms of how fraught their storylines are.”
Fans of the series were emotionally spent after the finale for Season 3 of the beloved NBC series where over the course of one hour, several key events occurred.
Randall (Sterling K. Brown) and Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) decided that they wanted to stay together after almost ending their marriage, sealing their fate together with a move from their luxurious New Jersey digs to a smaller home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, so Randall could be closer to his constituents as a congressman.
Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Toby (Chris Sullivan) brought home their premature baby from the NICU. While afraid of their new roles as parents of a premie, they remained strong in their commitment to one another. Kevin (Justin Hartley) broke up with girlfriend Zoe (Melanie Liburd) over their inability to agree on having a family together. Kevin then left his New York City apartment to move to California to be closer to his sister and his new nephew.
Rebecca (Mandy Moore) and second husband Miguel (Jon Huertas) also made a big move to the West Coast in order to be near Kate and her son.
In a flash-forward scene at the end of the season’s shocking finale, the Pearson clan gathered together at what appeared to be Kevin’s home to visit with Rebecca, who looked to be ill and in the final days of her life.
Fogelman revealed that he had already written the premiere script for Season 4, and that fans will get the chance to watch as the show attempts to fill in the holes of the backstory of the clan – the middle ground between when the Big Three headed to college and Rebecca realized she was on her own for the first time since the death of her husband Jack (Milo Ventimiglia).
This Is U s airs on NBC. Season 4 will air beginning this fall.
