At a panel devoted to Fringe at Los Angeles’ PaleyFest earlier this week, we learned that Leonard Nimoy will not just appear, as previously announced, in the show’s season finale. He’ll be returning occasionally to reprise the role of William Bell, the mysterious scientist and former partner of Fringe central character Dr. Walter Bishop, played by John Noble.
“I do look forward to working with him next year,” said Noble. Fellow panelist Anna Torv is the only Fringe star to share a scene with Nimoy in this season’s finale, which airs May 12.
The Fringe/Nimoy connection is, of course, J.J. Abrams, who’s directed the new Star Trek movie and is an exec producer of Fringe. “Nimoy was lovely and enthusiastic,” said Abrams when he brought up the notion of Nimoy playing Bell. “He contributed ideas to who William was in the past [when he worked with Dr. Bishop] and what he’d be like now. He hasn’t signed on for just one episode,” said Abrams on the panel.
Hey, if Trekkers seek out Fringe because of the Man Who Is Spock, it’s a good thing, right?
Fringe has been the best new show of the season, behind Kings (R.I.P.) and Southland. Nimoy will be a perfect fit to the cast.
http://tvdonewright.com/2009/04/25/tv-tonight-saturday-april-25th-2009/
This is awesome. Can’t wait to see him in Star Trek one last time, can’t wait to see him on Fringe.
I thought ‘Heroes’ made a HUGE error in killing Malcolm McDowell’s Lindeman off so early in that show. What makes this casting so perfect is Nimoy can come in as someone who can come in as a match for Dr. Bishop’s genius and is probably even superior. There is nothing worse than when your villian has an edge or the hero or heroes in this case. I sense scenery chewing in the near future.
This is so exciting!
Brad, that’s exactly what I was thinking. Leonard Nimoy in Fringe, even though it’ll only be occasional appearances, is definitely a case of “less is more”. The only pity is that we won’t see the highly anticipated Walter Bishop-William Bell “reunion” until later on this year when Season 2 is televised.
And Adam, I’d go so far to say that Fringe has been the best new show this season, behind no others. I’m so glad it’s coming back in the Fall.
Fringe started off weak, then took a ridiculously long hiatus, and finally returned strong. The writing is fun, the interplay between jackson and noble is great, and the backups (namely astrid and charlie) are excellent. Noble deserves special recognition; he is one of the best things on tv these days and fortunately the writers know how to play to his charm. Sadly, Torv (Rupert Murdoch’s niece) as the lead brings the show down; she is humorless, stiff and has exactly 5 facial expressions. She needs acting lessons and better writing. Putting a woman in the lead was a great decision – choosing Torv was a mistake; check out any of the sites covering this show and you will find that this is the consensus opinion. They should find a way to shift the focus from her to the Bishops. One way to start would be to really begin to explore jackson’s history; they keep alluding to it, but they never really do much with it.
I am totally thrilled that Leonard Nimoy will be on Fringe, my current favorite show.