“Fringe” is fast approaching the premiere of its fifth and final 13-episode season on September 28th, and you’d have to realistically expect that knowing the end is nigh that the show will be doing its best to give the fans the satisfactory denouement that they’re craving. Another J.J. Abrams created show, “Lost,” was in a similar situation to "Fringe" a few years back and Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof went to Comic-Con promising their fans the final season their dedication deserved…and we’ll leave you to decide whether they pulled that off or not. But one thing they were also extremely adamant about was that after the finale they were done with "Lost" for good. That doesn’t seem to be the same for "Fringe" with the cast talking up a potential continuation of the show in Hall H this weekend.
“The film is very possible down the line,” said John Noble, while Joshua Jackson asserted that “the show will live on in some form or another.” So the first thing to stress is that clearly there are no concrete plans in place or they wouldn’t be spoken about in such vague terms, but fans of the show will likely be pleased that it at least looks like those involved with the show want it to live on. We’re not entirely sure that a film is the best way forward though. Sure, it worked for “Firefly”/“Serenity” despite weak TV ratings, but that limited run arguably worked to Joss Whedon’s advantage in the respect that he didn’t have too dense a mythology to introduce to a movie audience.
Perhaps a better alternative for "Fringe" would be a model exploited by another of Joss Whedon’s shows – “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” Buffy has lived on in comic book (and motion comic) form, and that may be a good route for a show with a relatively small but devoted fanbase to follow. Other than that what else could "Fringe" spawn? A spin-off? An online RPG? An animated series? Who knows, but a the very least it will give Fringesters (that’s what they call themselves, right?) something to talk about while they wait patiently for the Season 5 premiere. [Deadline]