For the first time in five years, Michael J. Fox is returning to the screen. Deadline reports that he’s set to appear in the third season of Apple TV+‘s comedy-drama Shrinking, which will reunite the Back to the Future star with Bill Lawrence, who created Shrinking and Fox‘s hit 1990s sitcom Spin City. The part will be Fox‘s first acting role since 2020, when he reprised his The Good Wife character, Louis Canning, in two episodes of The Good Fight.

Details of Fox‘s appearance on the series are being kept under wraps, but it is believed he will be connected to Paul Rhoads (Harrison Ford), who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in the show’s first season. It will be the first on-screen collaboration between the two 20th-century box-office titans; however, Ford has talked about how Fox‘s own struggles with the disease have informed his performance. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1991 and went public with it in 1998, leaving Spin City as his symptoms began to worsen; he has limited his acting appearances since, and considered himself retired in recent years. He appeared in Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, a documentary about his life with the disease, in 2023. Like Shrinking, it was released on Apple TV+.

What Is ‘Shrinking’ About?

Shrinking stars Jason Segel, making his own return to acting after a hiatus, as Jimmy Laird, a therapist who’s having a hard time overcoming the recent death of his wife in a car accident. Not only is it straining his relationship with his teenage daughter, Alice (Lukita Maxwell), but it’s affecting his work, as well. In defiance of medical ethics, he starts telling his patients what he really thinks of them, much to the dismay of his colleagues Paul Rhoads (Ford) and Gaby Evans (Jessica Williams). The first season ended with one of Jimmy’s patients, inspired by his “truth-telling,” attempting to kill her abusive husband. The second season further complicated Jimmy’s life when Louis (series co-creator Brett Goldstein), the drunk driver who killed Jimmy’s wife, returned to seek amends.

Season three of Shrinking, which is currently in production, has already set an impressive slate of guest stars. In addition to Fox, the upcoming season will feature Jeff Daniels (as Jimmy’s father), Sherry Cola, and Isabella Gomez.

The third season of Shrinking is now in production, but no release date has yet been announced.

via Collider