The moment we’ve all been waiting for is finally here. This Is Us will premiere its fourth season tonight at 9pm ET/PT on NBC.
Tonight’s episode is called “Strangers”, and its synopsis reads, “Jack meets Rebecca’s parents; new characters are introduced.”
What the Cast Has to Say
In a recent sneak peek, obtained by US Weekly, the cast discusses the series and what it means to them. “The magic of this show is there’s still so much story to tell and that is exciting,” Mandy Moore shared.
Discussing season 4 specifically, Justin Hartley added, “You will be a little bit caught off guard, in a really good way… It is almost as if we’re telling a new story. Fans will be very surprised.” When we last left off in season 3, Justin had broken up with his girlfriend Zoe because of their different opinions on parenthood.
Asked by Entertainment Weekly about the final haunting image of Rebecca in the season 3 finale, Hartley shared, “The core cast, we know where the story goes, so it wasn’t that shocking to hear where the story was going. What was shocking was that it was going to be in the show so early. Dan [Fogelman, the show’s creator] and Isaac [Aptaker, executive producer] and Elizabeth [Berger, executive producer], they’re constantly doing this. It’s really strange how you can read a script — even now — and be blown away by how shocking it is, because that’s all they do. I fall into that trap every single time… Reading it doesn’t even prepare you for what you see, in my opinion. I know Mandy to be so young and like a supermodel/wonderful actress/genius, and then to see her like that — it takes your breath away a little bit, you know?”
This season will also introduce a whopping ten new characters, including Jennifer Morrison, Omar Epps, M. Night Shyamalan, Nick Wechsler, Timothy Omundson, Asante Blackk, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Bahara Golestani, Julian Silva and Auden Thornton.
“Restarts for Everybody”
Speaking about his feelings on season 4 of the show, Dan Fogelman shared with EW, “Restarts for everybody. 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.”
What will be covered in season 4? Fogelman shares, “I think we’re going to try to be equally ambitious in the amount of stuff we cover… In some ways because characters are restarting — and Randall and Beth’s family is moving, and Toby and Kate are bringing a baby home, and we’re going to continue the Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rebecca origin story — it’s going to feel in some ways almost like a version of season 1 in the middle of our series, in that we’re starting these new stories after we’ve told a lot of the stories in full for the past three seasons.”
At the top of season 4, Randall and Beth are moving their family to Philadelphia for Randall’s new job.
In the season 4 premiere, Jack and Miguel meet for the first time when Jack is in a pickle and needs to purchase a blazer for his dinner with Rebecca’s parents at their country club. He’s too short on money after Vietnam, and Miguel comes to his rescue. We’re assuming this introduction is the inspiration for the episode title, “Strangers”.
The show will premiere tonight on NBC at 9pm ET/PT.
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