I don’t think he’ll just drop out and leave them in a tight position. The fact that he even agreed to do Fringe, despite his retirement status and his desire to focus on his art, tells me that he was interested in the role and wanted to be a part of Fringe. That said, I don’t think he would be against an occasional appearance here and there.

I pretty much agree. My only real concern is that the show keeps its integrity. The show and its intended storyline should always come first, in my opinion. You’d have to think that the producers were prepared for the possibility of a long-term Nimoy stint or a short-term role when they hired him, so they should have plenty of options.

The Nimoy coup added flexibility and buzz – and it’s good to take advantage of situations like that, but hopefully the story will come first, even if the next William Bell (if there is to be one) has to be a “no-name” actor.

Re: filling Nimoy in with more details. I too can understand that. Although Bad Robot by their nature don’t really give their actors too many details ahead of the next script (something I totally support for spoiler and directorial reasons). So it will be interesting to see exactly how much they reveal to Nimoy about the future of William Bell. Perhaps a (very) general outline might suffice?

Unless he travels back in time and it turns out that a young William Bell turns out to look a lot like Trent Reznor…

Speaking of young William Bell – how about Zachary Quinto? That would have a nice symmetry to it.

And although I don’t think Nimoy would walk away completely from the show (and I don’t think he sounds overly much like he wants to), the expectations of a Bell/Bishop face-off are now such that if he were to do so seriously, it would probably prove fatal to the show’s long-term chances.

Unless he travels back in time and it turns out that a young William Bell turns out to look a lot like Trent Reznor…

I really don’t see what the big deal is with the Nimoy interview. I think people have completely taken it out of context and have somehow jumped to the conclusion that Nimoy is out for good. But I didn’t get that impression at all. My first thought after reading it was, like you pointed out, that it was nothing we hadn’t already heard before. Essentially it’s the same — Nimoy agreed to do Fringe, but never signed a contract to a specific number of episodes. And it makes sense that now that he’s filmed the third appearance, they would be back in the negotiation stage. It was always up in the air as to how often he would actually appear. And I wouldn’t say he’s lost his excitement with Fringe. He still had very good things to say about it. Honestly, he’s long past the age of retirement and he wants to do the things he wants to do — which is focusing on his art. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that.

Personally, I think that if the writers and producers fill him in a little bit on where his character is going and they make it clear that there’s a specific reason he should stay for a bit longer, he will do that. I don’t think he’ll just drop out and leave them in a tight position. The fact that he even agreed to do Fringe, despite his retirement status and his desire to focus on his art, tells me that he was interested in the role and wanted to be a part of Fringe. That said, I don’t think he would be against an occasional appearance here and there. I think he just wants to know what to expect — which is perfectly fine.