Major, and I mean MAJOR, spoilers for Shrinking Season 3 are ahead! You can stream the show in its entirety with an Apple TV subscription.
Shrinking Season 3 marked the end of an era for the great Apple TV show. However, the story is by no means over. Co-creator Bill Lawrence made it clear there’s a plan for Season 4 that will see the “exact” same gang back together. Although I still have questions about what will happen next on the acclaimed comedy. So, I asked those questions to Alice actress Lukita Maxwell and Cobie Smulders, who plays Sofi.
How Will Paul And Alice Come Back?
Considering it’s been common knowledge for a while now that the Shrinking team had a plan to keep the story going after Season 3, the major developments and moves for a few characters left me with one massive question: How will they come back? I’m specifically referring to the fact that Paul and Alice both moved across the country at the end of the show’s junior installment. We know for a fact that Harrison Ford will be back as Paul, and Lukita Maxwell will return as Jimmy’s (Jason Segel) daughter; however, it’s unclear how exactly that will happen.
Article continues belowSo, while discussing the season that just ended on the 2026 TV schedule, I asked Maxwell about this as well as her hopes for these two characters. Here’s what she told me:
I don't know where it's gonna go. I love that they're having this East Coast chapter. I love that they're both over there. I don't know. I can, like, make predictions of – there's so many ways it could go. I feel like there's gonna obviously, like – we're gonna be pulled back in some way. Maybe that's not obvious. I don't know. I have no idea. I hope that she continues going on her school journey, or maybe, maybe she doesn't. Maybe there's, maybe there's something else that pulls her in a different direction. I don't know. We’ll see.
“We’ll see,” indeed. At the end of Season 3, Paul had moved to Connecticut to be closer to his daughter, while Alice moved east for college.
I guess it's possible for Paul and his family to move back West. He could also come back for a temporary period to be near Jimmy and Gaby (Jessica Williams) to help with their career moves. Meanwhile, Alice could always transfer schools, or, as Maxwell guessed, maybe she's pulled in an entirely new direction. The possibilities are vast, so it was nice to hear the actress talk about what she thinks might happen.
Co-creator Bill Lawrence wouldn’t confirm how exactly these characters will be reunited with the rest of the cast or if there will be a time jump. However, during an interview with THR, he did say whatever happens next will “feel like [they’re] telling a completely different story.” I’d assume that how Alice and Paul find their way back into the picture will play a part in that.
How Did Jimmy And Sofi’s Date Go?
Now, Season 3 of Shrinking literally ends with Paul setting up a date for Jimmy and Sofi. However, while we get to see them smiling at each other, we don’t actually know how it goes. So, when I spoke to Cobie Smulders about Jimmy and Sofi’s romance, I asked her how she thinks that breakfast went. Here’s what she had to say:
I mean, I don't know. I think it's probably very awkward for the majority of it. But who knows, you know? I don't really know, but I think it was like – I don't think that either of these people did anything bad. Like nobody did anything bad, nobody did anything that was manipulative, or anything that would have really hurt the other people. I think that they're both just hurt by the situation. So I don't know how that will evolve.
Well, I know I certainly want them to get back together. So, I'm hopeful that this date, which likely was awkward, was a step in the right direction.
Along with chatting about how the date went, I also asked Smulders for her take on who set it up. I was curious about the importance of Paul doing this for Jimmy, and Smulders’ response highlighted that while reiterating the theme of Season 3, moving forward:
Well, I think it's a dynamic of their relationship, you know? I think that they have this really beautiful love story, just between these two characters. And I think that Jimmy really does look up to him. And I think him sort of saying, like, ‘It's time, like it's time to really truly, you know, move on into something else.’ I think that probably means a lot to Jimmy, and hopefully, he'll start moving forward with his life.
Overall, this final scene felt like Jimmy truly moving onwards and upwards. Now, it’s time to start something new.
Thankfully, that new story will include all the characters we already know and love. However, they’ll be at different places, literally and figuratively in life, and hopefully Season 4 will answer the questions we have about that.
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