What form will the reward take? In part, the reappearance of some old friends and plot points by the sounds of it. “Another part of the challenge” Wyman continued, “was to bring back things that you’ve forgotten about, recontextualize them and have the series make sense. That was really a big part of what I was after, to make sure that [the viewers] would say, ‘Oh my gosh, I thought they forgot about that, but they didn’t.’ There’s going to be a lot of that. There’s one, specifically that’s going to be very impactful, I hope.”
Wyman confirmed that the fifth series was to be set in 2036, “…and you’re going to see this new nuclear, really messed up family that’s trying to hold it all together. That’s where I’m going to focus. […] The Fringe team 2.0 is really, really important. You are going to find Anna’s [Torv, Olivia on the show] re-involvement in a very special and unique way.”
Why 2036? “We just figured that it would be a good age for Etta to be a part of the Fringe division […] We just thought that was the right time because she could be old enough to have made an impact in her own life, becoming a Fringe division agent, working for the underground. Her history was fascinating to us. What happened to her? Where did she go? Who raised her?”
Speaking of Etta, Wyman had a few words to say on the reunion between Peter and Olivia:
“What’s really key is what happens after they get out of amber and what has happened. The questions people should be asking, which are interesting, are ‘From the time Etta disappeared, what happened to them? How did they end up in amber?’ […] Not a lot of people are asking that, which I find interesting because there’s a large story there.”
And just how did the amber get here? “It was here in season 1, but you just didn’t know it. There was a bust in season 1, when they were trying to figure out the patter, that looked like a weapon and people thought it was a weapon of mass destruction, but it was amber. Now, we explain what amber is.”
Though Wyman wouldn’t be drawn on giving away more of the plot than that, he did reveal that further guest stars had been lined up to appear, though the show won’t necessarily be trailing them heavily beforehand, “I think it will be really fun to do it with no advertising, so that people go, ‘Is that? Yeah, that’s who it is!’”.
And finally, we can all rest assured: Walter will indeed be getting a new cow.
Fringe returns to Fox for its final 13-episode season on Friday the 28th of September.
