Michael J. Fox Makes His Acting Return and Reunites With Spin City Creator

Apple TV+'s comedy drama Shrinking has just added a brand-new cast member. The series, which boasts stunning reviews, has Jason Segel and Harrison Ford as the leads.

The five-time Emmy-winning actor Michael J. Fox had retired from acting since his latest appearance on The Good Fight in 2020, where he reprised his character, attorney Louis Canning, from The Good Wife. The actor has continued to be active, despite battling Parkinson's for three and a half decades, being a big part of his foundation, and constantly attending Back to the Future reunions. Now, he will have a new reunion with Spin City creator, Bill Lawrence, as Deadline reports Michael J. Fox joined Lawrence's hit series Shrinking for Season 3.

Details around Fox's character are still kept under wraps, but he has officially joined the series with a "major guest-starring role." However, his new character might be tied to the character arc of Ford’s Paul Rhoades. At the end of Season 1, it was revealed that Paul had Parkinson's, which could offer Fox a way in on the show.

Shrinking Season 3 will also mark a new reunion between Fox and Shrinking co-creator and executive producer Bill Lawrence. The two worked together on Lawrence's first show as a creator, Spin City, where Fox starred as the leading character, Mike Flaherty, for four seasons between 1996 and 2001, before departing the project after his symptoms became more difficult to manage. He later reprised his role in Season 6 as a guest star.

Fox and Lawrence later reunited in Scrubs. The medical comedy series featured Fox in two episodes in Season 3 as a guest star, where he played Dr. Kevin Casey, a surgeon with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Shrinking Also Honored Michael J. Fox

In an interview in late December 2024 with People, co-creator Bill Lawrence explained that Ford's Paul, a therapist who is dealing with his Parkinson's disease, drew inspiration from Michael J. Fox's own journey with the disease. During the An Evening with Shrinking at PaleyLive event, Lawrence revealed that he and the show's co-creator, Brett Goldstein, have a "deep history" with Parkinson's, as both their fathers have the disease.

"It's cool to get to write about things you care about now," the two-time Emmy-winning writer and creator explained, and further detailed the connection with Fox. "And Michael J. Fox is my first mentor. So we wanted to represent it in hopefully an inspiring and not sad or tragic way."

Lawrence further explained, "I found the first mentor in my life and career, Michael J. Fox, to be so inspiring with the way he took it in stride and continues to work harder than anybody I know," he detailed. "And we want to kind of carry that spirit if we can into the show."

Lawrence also explained that the show is based on his general outlook on life, as he "generally has kind of attacked tough situations with comedy" in his life. "It takes you a while as a writer to realize what your voice is — I think mine is hopeful and optimistic by nature." He continued, "I suck in the inspiring people around me, and I steal from them as much as I possibly can," crediting Fox as an inspiration.

Aside from Fox, Shrinking Season 3 features other new additions like Jeff Daniels, who will guest star as Jimmy’s father, Good Trouble's Sherry Cola, and Isabella Gomez (One Day at a Time).

Source: Deadline, People