Fans are on the edge of their seats waiting for new episodes of Abbott Elementary — and Us Weekly has the scoop on what’s to come in season 4.
The hit ABC show previously ended on a high note when Janine (Quinta Brunson) and Gregory (Tyler James Williams) finally locked lips during the season 3 finale. Viewers can be rest assured that the kiss heard around the world is just the beginning as Abbott Elementary continues to raise the sitcom bar.
“One of the funniest things about the show is Janine and Gregory thinking that their interactions don’t massively affect everybody else in the school,” Williams joked in the newest issue of Us Weekly about the “reverberating effect” of Janine and Gregory’s presumed romance. “It is going to affect the school as a whole.”
Williams teased that Jacob’s (Chris Perfetti) investment in Janine and Gregory’s romance would come back to haunt him.
“Jacob is really the only one who does know [about the kiss]. That’s what going into the season — we are really keeping track of who knows what happened. Jacob is the only one who does know and the fact that he doesn’t have an anxiety disorder at this point in time is nothing short of a miracle,” Williams quipped. “You’re going to see the fact that he’s playing with [this] information. Everybody else feels [more] suspicious [of Gregory and Janine]. … There’s definitely going to be a butterfly effect here. It’s going to affect everybody and the school as a whole.”
Brunson had similar insight into where Janine and Gregory stand. “I’m really pumped about that [storyline],” she teased. “I’m excited about Janine and Gregory both as individuals and as people who have had a situationship up until now.”
Aside from the Janine and Gregory of it all, season 4 promises two (!) Christmas episodes, more family members being introduced on screen and that highly anticipated crossover episode.
The entire cast of Abbott Elementary gave Us an exclusive glimpse before the show returns to ABC on Wednesday, October 9, at 9:30 p.m. ET.:
Janine Teagues
Quinta Brunson. Disney/Pamela Littky
After a brief stint at the district, Janine is back to teaching — just in time for a big change in her relationship status. Brunson, who is an executive producer on Abbott Elementary, is excited about the direction the show is going as the writers continue to reveal more about each character.
“The writers and producers — we have distinct visions. So my hope is always that I’m not asking the actors to work overtime and they don’t feel the need to do anything but come in and act. Of course they have [insight into their characters that they share]. And it’s more them taking the material and performing it in a way that sometimes I don’t even expect,” she noted to Us. “I’m like, ‘Oh wow, that unleashed a new layer. I didn’t see it that way, but the way you did it was exactly how that would be said.’ It’s a lot about how they say things and I think that’s really cool with our process.”
The other perk of having a creative say is brainstorming new ideas like a crossover episode.
“It’s very cool. It’s unexpected and it’ll be a delight to the audience of both shows. It’ll be very exciting for the people who watch our shows and if they watch one show and not the other, that’s cool too,” Brunson shared. “Because it’ll make people interested in [the other] show. It’s just a fun way to shake up TV.”
Brunson confirmed that the crossover would happen “a little later in the season” but “not too far” out. She also discussed how Abbott Elementary‘s extended episode order would benefit season 4 since now there’s 22 episodes to look forward to.
“What’s fun about 22 episodes is being able to have multiple arcs throughout the season. I’m just so excited to return to having longer arcs that last six episodes long. But then also having some that only last two episodes within the 22,” she continued. “I am really pumped to be able to tell those kinds of stories again because with our truncated season 3, it was a little bit harder to do and minimized the amount of different arcs we would’ve done.”
Brunson concluded: “I’m excited about our holiday episodes. Those are just fun to do and they’re so much fun for the audience. We will have a Halloween episode and a Christmas episode this year and that really just makes me happy.”
Gregory Eddie
Season 3 ended as the school year came to an end but fans shouldn’t be too worried about that inevitable time jump.
“We always like to do somewhat of a catch up — whether it’s visual or verbal. It’s the top of the year so that’s something that we’ve established as a pattern that you can expect at this point now that we’re going to do it,” Williams told Us. “How we’re going to do it is always going to be unique. But I think at this point, it’s safe to expect that we will catch up over the time missed.”
The update will help as everyone tries to figure out where Janine and Gregory stand after finally acting on their feelings. Williams couldn’t give too much away — except to say that there’s some definite changes when it comes to our favorite TV couple.
“I can tell you right now, [Quinta and I] changed the way we did everything. We changed the way we did literally everything. Each year we have to approach [Janine and Gregory] in their dynamic differently and specifically the way they interact,” he teased. “We had a lot of conversations before the season started and then after the season first started as we were kind of sharpening and narrowing things down as to how [do] they interact with each other physically? How do they interact with each other emotionally? There’s different ways in which they’re going to talk to each other. This will feel like an evolution of Janine and Gregory similarly to how they have the previous seasons.”
The actor continued: “You will definitely see those changes and we’ve been working really hard to make sure that they’re new and fresh and different than what the previous seasons were. This season should feel tonally different for them.”
Season 4 doesn’t just shift things for Gregory in his personal life. His return to Abbott marks another attempt to make an impact on his kids and evolve as an educator.
“We’re now getting into the day to day of Gregory at the school. What we hear from a lot of teachers is these smaller events that happen throughout the school year that really shape who you are and how you teach. I can definitely say based on even what we have coming so far, there are a lot more Gregory-oriented storylines,” Williams shared. “Not just navigating how he feels about kids but just a teacher as a whole. How does he interact with parents? We now have established a PTA — thanks to Tariq — so how does he interact with them as well? It’s something that’s been a real fun thing to explore for me. We’re getting really in the weeds of the stories that are going to make Gregory a seasoned teacher.”
Gregory is also facing some challenges as the holiday season rolls around. After dressing up as Captain Sully Sullenberger, Gregory is determined to choose a Halloween costume that resonates with his students and coworkers.
“Gregory wants to do a really good job this year. We know enough about him to know that when he really wants to do a really good job with something, it’s going to bother him whether it goes well or not,” Williams joked. “The stakes are so high for him, always.”
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Melissa Schemmenti
When we last checked in with Melissa, she and Jacob were finding their groove as roommates. The obstacles, however, are not fully in Melissa’s rearview mirror.
“It’s different living with a person vs. working with them,” Brunson told Us. “Now [there are] things Jacob knows about her and things she knows about him.”
Lisa Ann Walter also teased a dinner episode fans won’t see coming, telling Us, “When you see it, you’ll know what I mean. But it is a super funny version of this kind of story and I’m very excited for it. It’s just chaos.”
As for Melissa’s love life, Abbott Elementary won’t be boxing her in as she keeps exploring the dating scene.
“In Melissa’s [experience], women got with a guy and probably had kids. We still don’t know that part of Melissa’s story yet, but I think we will at some point hear what that journey was for her,” she detailed. “For Melissa, getting a divorce was so big. It was big for her that she was just afraid to go and live a life the way it might’ve been. So she’s kind of doing that now.”
Walter even has ideas of her own about who Melissa could find love with in season 4. “I could see Melissa getting with somebody like Big Dom [DiSandro] who circles around the Eagles,” she quipped. “A peripheral guy who is like a second assistant coach to one of the Philly teams.”
Another thing viewers should expect from Melissa this season is a killer Halloween costume.
“I just got part of it fitted,” Walter revealed after previously dressing up as Elizabeth Olsen‘s Wanda from the Marvel universe. “And I personally think that it beats everything. It beats everything. It tops it.”
Barbara Howard
Melissa isn’t the only one pulling out all the stops this spooky season. “If it’s Halloween, Barbara’s going to dress up. If it’s Christmas, she’s going to sing,” Sheryl Lee Ralph shared with Us as Brunson promised “more fun” for Barbara in the form of “more time with her kids.”
Just because Barbara is always teaching others doesn’t mean she can’t learn something new. “Barbara is becoming a lifetime student,” Ralph teased to Us. “She just keeps learning and evolving as a human being.”
That can also mean working through some growing pains. “She has love and respect from her children, but that doesn’t mean that they do not have their ups and downs,” Ralph continued. “Sometimes those downs can hurt.”
She added: “Having been at Abbott so long, with everything going on in the world, in her personal life and in her school life, she’s probably thinking about her next chapters.”
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Jacob Hill
Chris Perfetti. Disney/Pamela Littky
Prepare for season 4 to shine an unexpected light on Jacob’s origin story.
“When I first read about where that storyline was going, I was kind of shocked about it,” Perfetti told Us about how introducing Jacob’s family revealed “the genesis” of his legendary corniness. “The people that we’re going to meet in Jacob’s life are — for lack of a better word — illuminating. … We can’t really make people laugh with the same jokes over and over again. So it’s always been a priority of our writers to try and delve deeper into who these people are.”
He continued: “When you meet [a character’s] family, you just get to show and paint with all of these colors that we’re not really used to seeing. I’m just so glad that we’re doing it because a sitcom is kind of like a trap for two dimensionality. So keeping it fresh and keeping it relatable and keeping it real while keeping it funny is obviously very helped by our mockumentary format. But it’s always been a top priority.”
When the new school year starts, Jacob is also still trying to find himself.
“We found something really interesting last year in terms of sort of ripping Jacob’s very close relationship away from him — both of his very close relationships with Janine and with [ex] Zach. There’s a lot of meat there and it’s really interesting to see Jacob flail a bit and not be able to anchor himself in a romantic relationship,” Perfetti reflected in response to a question about Jacob’s love life and newbie Avi.”But the cool thing about our show is that everybody who comes to play on the show as a guest just feels so of the world of Abbott. Once they’re in, I feel like they’re in and we’re trying to create a vocabulary for our audience where they don’t have to say goodbye to people.”
Abbott Elementary still has an endless amount of story lines it can tell — and Perfetti has one to add to the wishlist: “We have to do a school play, obviously,” he said. “And I think it should be a two-part episode and maybe even a musical.”
Ava Coleman
Janelle James. Disney/Pamela Littky
Season 4 not only has a larger episode count — but a bigger budget too. For Janelle James, that means “new outfits” for Ava as she continues to run the school her way. Brunson, meanwhile, told Us we are about to see Ava like “we haven’t seen her” before.
“We’ll probably see more growth with her this season than we ever have before,” Brunson revealed. “More than any other character, which is so exciting to me.”
Although we got a glimpse of Ava’s grandmother, the remaining relatives have remained a mystery — for now.
“I think you’ll be surprised at Ava’s family dynamic,” Brunson hinted while James teased more relationship updates, saying, “Ava gets closer with her colleagues, students and… maybe someone else? We’ll definitely be seeing her softer side.”
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Mr. Johnson
Fans hoping to learn more about Abbott’s favorite janitor will be getting their wish — but don’t expect Mr. Johnson to lose his entire aura of mystery in season 4.
“You’re going to see more of his personal life. He does have a family. He may have a family all over the world. He’s worked all over the world. He’s had over 400 jobs,” William Stanford Davis joked before reminding Us that Mr. Johnson is always “an enigma.”
Season 4 will deliver more fleshed out stories for Mr. Johnson. He’s feeling his age but according to Brunson, Mr. Johnson is “holding a lot of weight in the school” now more than ever. Brunson went on to hint at more interactions between Mr. Johnson and Janine.
“We get to tell some very interesting stories this season about mentorship and aging. Anyone watching who has a lot of older family members will recognize those moments. [Having] an older person at the job and what that means and the responsibility that kind of falls on you or the changes that happen at your job [are explored],” Brunson added. “He’s falling more into that [mentorship] role, but in a very Mr. Johnson way.”
While the writers are evolving Mr. Johnson’s story, this is one wish from Davis they likely won’t grant on screen. “I told ’em Mr. Johnson’s love interest should be Halle Berry! She should roll up in a convertible and hop in. But they laugh at me,” he joked to Us. “It’s going to be a lot of fun. First of all, with season 4 we moved to the 9:30 PM slot on Thursday nights. We follow The Golden Bachelorette because old people need love too.”
