The next season of Apple TV+’s The Morning Show will likely premiere long after the 2024 presidential election has ended, and that democratic process only scratches the surface of what real-life events the drama series could respond to with the time it has in production before release.
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The Morning Show received an early renewal for a fourth season before Season 3 even premiered. At the time of this announcement, a fifth season was also in consideration.
Read on for everything we know about The Morning Show Season 4 so far.
Has The Morning Show Season 4 started production yet?
Yes! Jennifer Aniston posted a shot of her and costar Reese Witherspoon along with Tig Notaro on Instagram July 8, revealing that Season 4 production is underway.
Photos of Jennifer Aniston getting doused in oil went viral at the end of July for some scene she was filming.
Right after that, paparazzi captured Reese Witherspoon and Mark Duplass along with director Mimi Leder shooting a scene for the show.
Who is in the cast of The Morning Show Season 4?
Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston will return as the leading ladies of the Apple TV+ drama series.
The most recent addition to the cast for the fourth season is William Jackson Harper, who will play Ben, the network’s self-assured and innovative Head of Sports. Jeremy Irons will portray Alex Levy’s (Jennifer Anniston) father.
Bradley Jackson’s (Reese Witherspoon) father was portrayed by David Morse in the first season of The Morning Show, and while Morse hasn’t reprised the role yet, Witherspoon hopes he will return.
“He’s one of my favorite actors of all time,” Witherspoon said during a press conference moderated by Deadline. “So, I hope he comes back. It was such an honor to get to do some scenes with him. He’s just so wonderful.”
June 2024 saw Marion Cotillard join the ensemble cast including Billy Crudup, Mark Duplass, Nestor Carbonell, Karen Pittman and Greta Lee. As if Season 3, Nicole Beharie, Jon Hamm, Stephen Fry, Tig Notaro and more had joined the mix. Aaron Pierre (Genius: MLK/X, The Underground Railroad) has also joined Season 4 in the major recurring role of Miles, an acclaimed visual artist who moves through the circles of the New York elite.
Cotillard will portray ‘Celine Dumont,’ a savvy operator from a storied European family. Julianna Margulies will not return for Season 4. She previously portrayed Laura Peterson, a seasoned journalist and love interest for Witherspoon’s Bradley Jackson.
What is The Morning Show Season 4 about?
A lot of questions arose with the Season 3 finale. While Apple TV+ hasn’t released a plot synopsis yet, the cast and those behind the cameras have vocalized where things could head.
Bradley’s fate as a journalist hangs in the balance, and Witherspoon couldn’t confirm whether her character is for sure in jail.
“Everybody keeps asking me if Bradley’s in jail,” Reese Witherspoon said during a press conference moderated by Deadline on Thursday, “but I don’t know if I’m in trouble.”
Jennifer Anniston’s Alex Levy will deal with the results of the merger between UBA and YDA she sparked last season as well.
“It’s watching this big move that Alex made at the end of Season 3 and how’s that working out for you? That position and that huge merge happening, and to see how gracefully that she walks through that.”
Showrunner Charlotte Stoudt teased DeepFakes and AI next season.
“We blew everything up last year with the biggest bomb we could possibly build,” she said at Deadline’s Contender’s TV event. “So, we have to ask ourselves how is the band going to get back together, and what will that look like? We get into the world of DeepFakes and AI and the misinformation in the fog of war that we’re seeing now in the Middle East and stuff. We’re looking at who can trust. And can you trust what you’re seeing? Can you trust yourself? Can you trust your news outlet?”
Stoudt also seemed keen to explore more of Charlie “Chip” Black and Alex’s relationship.
“I don’t know how Chip and Alex got started, so I would like to hear that story,” she told Deadline. “I think because it is so fast-paced and breathless, you can always turn over another emotional card. And that’s one thing I really want to do this season.”
Mark Duplass, who plays Chip agrees that “there’s something there” beyond the work husband and work wife dynamic Kristin Hahn called “the platonic love story.”
Duplass also commented on the possibility of an election getting worked into the show’s fourth installment since it has echoed real-life historical events in the United States previously.
“My assumption is that we’re going to airing the show well after that election has happened,” Duplass told Deadline. “So my instinct is that while The Morning Show does chase current events, and we have historically, in the past, with the #MeToo movement and Covid, and everything that happened with women’s rights in Season 3, I don’t know that the election is even possible to chase, just with the logistical timeline of it.”
What happened in The Morning Show Season 3?
Cory Ellison (Billy Cruddup) courted Jon Hamm’s newcomer Paul Marks in an attempt to cushion UBA with an acquisition by the space tech-based billionaire, who also struck up a romance with Jennifer Aniston’s Alex.
Alex, though, caught wind of Paul’s true intention to strip the media conglomerate for parts as well as his coverup of some malfunctions with the Hyperion rocket launch in the first episode as well as his surveilling technology installed on UBA employees’ phones. Stella’s (Greta Lee) old friend Kate (Natalie Morales) aided in the whistleblower movement to expose the tech titan.
Bradley’s journalistic integrity became compromised because she chose not to reveal that her brother Hal (Joe Tippett) had participated in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and that she had caught it on tape. Paul threatened to blackmail Bradley with this secret, which was also known to Cory and eventually Laura Peterson (Julianna Margulies).