Michael J. Fox Returns to Acting in Season Three of Shrinking

Michael J. Fox is returning to acting for the first time in six years with a guest appearance in the third season of Shrinking, Apple TV+’s therapy-centered comedy-drama. A newly released clip from the season premiere, marks Fox’s first on-screen role since 2020 and places him in a scene that directly engages with Parkinson’s disease, the condition he has lived with publicly for more than three decades.

The scene appears in the opening episode of Season Three, titled “My Bad,” which premieres Jan. 28. Fox plays Gerry, a patient in a doctor’s office waiting room who strikes up a conversation with Paul, the therapist character portrayed by Harrison Ford. Paul, who is also living with Parkinson’s, initially downplays his symptoms while sitting beside Gerry, who is further along in the progression of the disease.

Their exchange is brief but pointed. Gerry jokes that he would “kill” to have Paul’s mild tremor, while Paul admits to stiffness and pain on one side of his body. The humor is blunt, self-aware, and rooted in lived experience, culminating in Gerry’s declaration: “Enough whining, I’m still here. So, fuck Parkinson’s.” When Paul later repeats the line on his way into his appointment, the moment lands less as a punchline than as an acknowledgment of shared reality.

Fox’s appearance carries weight beyond the scene itself. He stepped away from acting in 2020, citing increasing difficulties with speech and motor function caused by Parkinson’s. His last live-action role was a two-episode arc on The Good Fight, following a long career that included landmark television and film performances. Since then, Fox has remained publicly visible through documentaries, advocacy work, and voice performances, but has avoided on-screen acting until now.

His return also marks a reunion with series co-creator Bill Lawrence, who previously worked with Fox on Spin City, the late-1990s sitcom on which Fox starred before his Parkinson’s diagnosis became public. Fox also made a guest appearance on Scrubs, another Lawrence-created series, making Shrinking a continuation of a long professional relationship rather than a one-off cameo.

The decision to place Fox in a scene centered on Parkinson’s is deliberate. Shrinking has woven the disease into its narrative through Ford’s character, portraying it with a balance of realism and restraint rather than sentimentality. Fox’s presence adds a layer of authenticity that avoids melodrama, grounding the show’s treatment of illness in lived perspective rather than abstraction.

Season Three of Shrinking features an expanded slate of guest appearances alongside Fox, including Sherry Cola, Candice Bergen, Isabella Gomez, and Jeff Daniels. The core cast remains led by Ford and Jason Segel, with Jessica Williams, Christa Miller, Luke Tennie, Michael Urie, Lukita Maxwell, and Ted McGinley returning.