Shrinking Season 3 is confirmed – and there’s plenty that we know already about it.
It feels like just yesterday Season 2 of Shrinking premiered as part of the 2024 TV schedule and already started to make us sob uncontrollably in the first episode. Now, the Shrinking Season 2 finale has come and gone – and some of us are still crying, this time at Harrison Ford’s speech in the finale.
Now, we know that Season 3 of the show is confirmed. But what is the next season going to be about? And what can we expect from it? Here is what we know so far about the next season of Shrinking.
When Is The Shrinking Season 3 Premiere Date?
At the time of writing this in December 2024, there is no set premiere date for Shrinking Season 3, which isn’t that surprising. The finale of Season 2 aired not that long ago, so it would be pretty surprising if we already had a premiere date for the new season.
However, we can at least theorize. Shrinking has been pretty consistent in its release schedule, with the first season coming out in 2023 and the second, obviously, coming out this year in 2024. So, with that track record, I’d say that the third season is expected to come out as part of the 2025 TV schedule.
Which, honestly, is a blessing in this day and age. There are so many fantastic streaming shows out there, but many of them tend to take years to produce seasons. Bridgerton Season 4 on Netflix will probably be released in 2026. Stranger Things Season 5 will be released next year after a three-year wait. Those are just two examples of shows that tend to wait forever.
Even so, Apple TV+ has always been pretty consistent with their productions, so I'm hoping it’s safe to expect Shrinking to return next year.
The Shrinking Season 3 Cast
In terms of who from the Shrinking cast is coming back, we don’t have anything confirmed yet, but there are plenty that we can expect to return, including:
- Jason Segel as Jimmy Laird
- Jessica Williams as Gaby
- Luke Tennie as Sean
- Michael Urie as Brian
- Lukita Maxwell as Alice
- Christa Miller as Liz
- Harrison Ford as Dr. Paul Rhoades
- Ted McGinley as Derek
It wouldn’t really be Shrinking without all of these characters coming back, and since Season 2 ended with all of them together, we can expect they’ll return for a third round.
Bill Lawrence Also Wants Louis To Return
Another character that became a big part of Season 2 of the show was Louie, the drunk driver who had killed Jimmy’s wife and Alice’s mom. Played by co-creator Brett Goldstein (who is also known from the Ted Lasso cast), we got to see into Louie’s mind and really get to know him – and ended up loving him way more.
Yes, Brett Goldstein’s character broke my heart, and I was very worried about him in the Shrinking finale, but he pulled through. And recently, in an interview with The L.A. Times in December 2024, co-creator Bill Lawrence said that they’d love to have Louie be a part of Season 3, and that he can’t see them moving forward without the character in the story:
I think the audience would feel cheated if that were not the case. Obviously, Brett’s got tons of s— he’s working on, but he is so good in the show this year, so the idea of getting to show how he [Louis] moves forward interests us. Don’t forget, we pitched this show where the first year is about grief, second year is about forgiveness, [the] third year is about moving forward. It would be weird to not include his character as part of that.
I want to see way more of him too, so that works for me!
What Shrinking Season 3 Is About
While Shrinking Season 2 has come to an end, there are a few things that we know about the following season. Here is what you can expect:
Season 3 Will Be All About “Moving Forward”
Every season of Shrinking has had a theme, and thankfully, Jason Segel has given us an idea of what the next season will be about in an interview with Variety in December 2024 – “moving forward:”
I’m allowed to say our words for Season 3 are ‘moving forward.’ So that’s all we really know so far. Season 1 was grief, Season 2 was forgiveness, and Season 3 is moving forward.
Okay, so already I’m wondering how they’re going to move forward, and I have a feeling it’s going to hurt.
Sofi Could Come Back
For those who don’t remember, Sofi was a tiny little guest role that appeared in Season 2 of Shrinking, played by Cobie Smulders – who was actually a co-star of Segel’s in the How I Met Your Mother cast.
There are instant sparks between Sofi and Jimmy, in my opinion, and in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in December 2024, Lawrence responded that it’s “a good idea” to bring her back and that the intention is to bring Smulders back:
That’s a good idea. Without a doubt. Our fingers being crossed. The only bummer of working with people that great is they often have lots of jobs. Lily Rabe, who plays Harrison’s daughter, is definitely in the show in the third year, and she’s starting a Broadway play right when we start shooting. So, we’ll work it all out, but yeah. Our intent was that the representation of what moving forward looks like for Jimmy would be back.
If Season 3 is all about moving forward, that means Sofi could be a big part of it; who knows?
Paul’s Disease Will Play A Much Bigger Role In Season 3
Something else that’s a big thing with Shrinking is that Paul’s Parkinson’s disease has gotten steadily worse, and right now the drugs are not working for him. In that interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Lawrence said that how Paul learns to deal with this is going to be a big part of his “moving forward” moment and how he’s learning how to accept help from others:
We knew that for this kind of three-season story, and we’re still hoping to tell another three-season story with this group, that we wanted to end with showing what that means, and having hopefully gotten Paul to a place in his life that if he’s going to navigate it, he’s going to navigate it not on an island but with the people around him, and so it’s gonna be a huge part of next year.
His disease has always been a big part of his storyline, so I’m curious to see how he reacts next.
Filming For Season 3 Is Expected To Begin In January 2024
The last thing we know is that filming for Season 3 is expected to begin sooner than you think. In an interview with Collider, Brett Goldstein said that he expects them to begin filming in “January 2025,” which is next month.
That means we’ll hopefully be getting more updates really soon, and that makes me even more excited.
What are you looking forward to with Shrinking Season 3? All I know is that I need to see the next part of the story – and I’ll be crying probably the whole way through too.
