SPOILERS: 'Fringe' Wraps Up Season Four, Teases Season Five

by UInterviewMay 12, 2012, 12:00 amNews >

Fans of J.J. Abrams' Fringe, which stars Joshua Jackson (Peter Bishop), Anna Torv (Olivia Dunham), John Noble (Dr. Walter Bishop) and Michael Cerveris were delighted late last month when it was announced that Fringe, the sci-fi Fox show that has been grasping onto its ratings during its fourth season, will be renewed for a shortened 13-episode fifth season. And now that the pressure's off and the season finale has aired, rumors are flying about what season five of Fringe will have in store for fans in September 2012.

Fringe's season four finale, the second installment of a two-parter called "Brave New World," showed the heroes' dilemma after discovering the fate of the world in 2036, when it is ruled by bald "Observers" a time-traveling super-power from the even more distant future. "There is certainly the suggestion at the end," of a full-scale takeover by the Observers, hinted executive producer J.H. Wyman, according to Entertainment Weekly. "The idea that September says, 'They're coming,' and that Olivia says she's pregnant really does set us up for what we saw in 'Letters of Transit,'" Wyman said. "At the same time, I will also say that everything you've seen over the past four seasons is hugely important to season five."

Wyman and his fellow producer Jeff Pinkner didn't know if Fringe would be renewed for a fifth season or not, so they had to prepare for the season four finale being the last episode ever. "We would have thought of something," said Pinkner. "Written a graphic novel or something on the Internet, to wrap up everything [if the show was cancelled]. Call it blind ignorance or naivete or being stupid, we have said, every season, 'Okay, this is it,' and left it in the hands of the audience and the press to drum up enough support for us to come back and do it again."

But just because there is a confirmed truncated season five of Fringe, don't get too excited. That will spell the end of it. The fifth season, Abrams said, is just about enough to "allow the series to conclude in a wild and thrilling way."

Catch the fifth season of Fringe on Fox on September 2012.