In a conference call following the show’s renewal for a fifth and final season, Fringe executive producers Jeff Pinkner and Joel Wyman dropped various hints about the show’s direction for its concluding year.

Asked whether Leonard Nimoy would return to play William Bell, Pinkner said, “We basically erected a sign outside of Leonard’s house that says, ‘Please come back to Fringe,’ and we are hoping that by Season 5 he says yes.” Although Nimoy has said that he has retired from acting, he has recently indicated that he will be reprising his role as Spock yet again in the new Star Trek film currently coming to the end of shooting for release next year.

Wyman also suggested that things were not quite as they seemed following the events of episode 19, and said that the 2036 future shown there “is important to our storytelling, but it’s the not the be all and end all.”

The executive producer also refuted John Noble’s suggestion that an alternate ending for the fourth season had been filmed in case the show did not get picked up. “We did not shoot an alternate ending,” Wyman said firmly. “We thought about it, but we did not [film it].”