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Griffin Dunne Says Season 5 of ‘This Is Us’ Reveals a Love Story for Uncle Nick

We may be only months away (five but who’s counting?) from season five of This Is Us, but that doesn’t mean we’re not still dwelling over that season four finale

PureWow recently sat down for a Skype interview with Griffin Dunne (who plays one of the newer additions to the Pearson family, Uncle Nick) to discuss his Netflix documentary Joan Didion: The Center Will Not HoldAnd while the 64-year-old revealed what it was like directing the documentary feature about his aunt (you read that correctly) and how he was “terrified of getting it wrong,” he also took some time to answer our most burning questions about the NBC show’s upcoming season. 

“I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say you will [be seeing more of Nick],” he stated. “Dan Fogle, the creator of the show, along with the writers, do things for those audience members that are really paying attention to give them hints that we’re going to be seeing a lot more of a character. During the brief time I was in the show, there was a close up of a wedding ring. They’ll lay in a certain shot and people will notice it. But it might not get picked up until four or five episodes into the next season.”

Ah yes, the wedding ring. We definitely had questions about that. Unfortunately for us, Dunne couldn’t give away too much about his character’s love story. 

“There is a backstory,” he continued. “There’s a story about the wedding ring that I, of course, can’t tell. But Nicky is a very popular character, I’m happy to say and they’re going to use him.”

We're definitely happy about that too.

Now, back to that Joan Didion doc. The Netflix film features a treasure trove of archival footage in which Dunne talks at length to his aunt about the eras she covered and the eventful life she’s lived. 

“I grew up in Los Angeles in the world that Joan wrote about,” he revealed on his relationship with Joan. “I was very close to her and her husband John. I made a short film at her request to promote a book she did called Blue Nights and we had so much fun doing it that I said, ‘Can I make a feature doc?’ and she let me.” 

The doc may be quite different from This Is Us, but you can bet your Netflix subscription we'll be watching both.