Peter Bishop fans may not be happy. Actor Joshua Jackson says he’ll be appearing less in Fringe this year. But he says that the decision is based on the story being told and not for other reasons.
“Our show is not a star-driven show, it’s a character-driven show. I know [the producers] want me to be a part of Fringe, but I know they also want to tell the story in the best possible way,” he tells IGN. Jackson added that the move to reduce Peter’s role is “ballsy” one by the production team.
“It’s so unusual to take one of the three leads… and to break them out of the show,” he said. “Particularly on network television where a lot of it really is personality-driven. There’s a lot of nervousness about upsetting the apple cart,” he says.
As for what Peter’s role on the show will be this year, actor John Noble says that it will be a different one.
What’s happening is we’re going to bring Josh back in as Peter, but not in the same way,” Noble told E! Online. “Not as a person that’s been there with us all the time, but as a person that comes in our lives at this stage.”
He continued: “That’s very different, because the relationship that the audiences know won’t be there. Olivia (Anna Torv) won’t be in love with him, at least to start with, so we’ve started a whole possibility for relationship growth.”
Nobel also says that Peter’s disappearance will have an impact on Walter.
“[Walter] won’t leave the lab,” he explained. “He hears voices and has hallucinations [because] he’s crazy! He still can solve problems, but he has to get Astrid (Jasika Nicole) to go out with a special [camera] so he can see the crime scenes because he won’t go out himself.”
Fringe is having a death rattle as I write this. Better bring him back now or it won’t matter soon.