The show has released a few stills from the episode, each of which reveals something about the drama and where certain characters are at when it returns…
East Dillon’s main color appears to be red.
Riggins is less than enthralled about life in college.
Matt is still with Julie.
Check out a few promos for the series and click on the photos below to enlarge each one…
Coach struggles to pull together his new team - the East Dillon Lions; Tami navigates the politics at West Dillon; Matt gets a taste of life as a townie; Tim is inspired by a college lecture on “the hero’s journey”.
While NBC viewers need to wait until the summer of 2010 for new episodes of Friday Night Lights, DIRECTV subscribers can start to get excited about season four of this acclaimed series.
It kicks off on October 28.
According to one newly released promo for the drama, one town will change forever over the next few months, as Coach Eric Taylor takes his passion and intensity to East Dillon High School.
“This season opener is practically a pilot in itself. It puts Coach Taylor at the center of the action in a new school, with a new team, and many new challenges,” said executive producer Jason Katims. “In addition to the returning cast, we are introducing a host of new characters who will become integral to the fourth and fifth season of the show.”
Watch the following trailer for season four, which is narrated by Tyra’s emotional reading of her college application essay:
It doesn’t reveal any new scenes or spoilers, but anyone whose spine doesn’t tingle while viewing it must lack clear eyes and/or a full heart.
When Friday Night Lights returns for a fourth season, Tyra will be in college. While actress Adrianne Palicki might make a mid-season return, she’ll have her hands full with Supernatural events in the meantime.
But, don’t worry Landry fans, your man won’t just sit around and pine for her. The character will be involved in a love triangle when the series kicks off on DirecTV on October 28.
According to TV Guide Magazine, Landry will fight over the same girl with African-American teammate Vince (played by Michael B. Jordan). The female in question? Jess (Jurnee Smollett), who works with her dad at a local hangout.
“It’s good to see mixed couples on TV,” Jesse Plemons said. “The last girl I dated [in real life] was mixed race. Texas has come a long way, but there’s still racism.”
IT’S EAST VS. WEST, LIONS VS. PANTHERS WHEN FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS RETURNS FOR SEASON FOUR OCTOBER 28th ONLY ON DIRECTV’S THE 101 NETWORK
The Critically Acclaimed Drama Will Air Commercial-free Every Wednesday at 9 p.m.
Viewers will meet the East Dillon Lions when the fourth season of the critically acclaimed and Emmy-winning drama series Friday Night Lights premieres October 28 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on DIRECTV’s The 101 Network. Executive Producer Peter Berg (”Hancock”) will direct the season premiere, returning to the series as director for the first time since directing the show’s pilot in 2006. Four new additions to the cast, as well as the returning characters, will be central to the fourth and fifth seasons of the show.
Expanding on the hit feature film and best-selling book “Friday Night Lights,” the award-winning show centers on life in Dillon, Texas, where high school football brings the community together — and the drama of small town life threatens to tear it apart. As season four opens, a redistricting plan has left Dillon a town divided. Having been ousted from his role as head coach at Dillon High School, Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) finds himself faced with the daunting task of building a football team from scratch as well as motivating and disciplining the unmanageable East Dillon Lions players. Tensions follows Coach Taylor off the field and into the home as he and Tami (Connie Britton), who remains Principal of West Dillon High, find themselves increasingly at odds with one another and the adversarial roles the redistricting has forced upon them. As one of the main proponents of redistricting Dillon, Tami bears the brunt of criticism from very unhappy parents and students who have been zoned out of West Dillon and into less desirable East Dillon.
“This season opener is practically a pilot in itself. It puts Coach Taylor at the center of the action in a new school, with a new team, and many new challenges,” said executive producer Jason Katims. “In addition to the returning cast, we are introducing a host of new characters who will become integral to the fourth and fifth season of the show.”
An integral member of the newly formed East Dillon Lions is Vince (All My Children alum Michael B. Jordan), whose incredible speed positions him as the Lions best, and possibly only, hope despite his undisciplined skills and unpredictable temper. Vince quickly finds himself at odds with the team’s new pretty boy and rising star player Luke (Lipstick Jungle’s Matt Lauria). The running back held great promise playing with the Dillon Panthers, however, due to the redistricting lines he is now forced to play for the East Dillon Lions. Other newcomers include Jess (Jurnee Smollett, The Great Debaters), the daughter of a onetime NFL hopeful, who is an expert in the sport and will prove to be a crucial part of the new East Dillon team; and Becky, played by newcomer Madison Burge. Becky is a fifteen-year-old beauty queen who isn’t afraid to use her looks to get what, and who, she wants and quickly establishes herself at the top of the East Dillon social hierarchy.
The upcoming fourth season will also focus on the fate of several returning characters including last season’s graduates Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch), Lyla Garrity (Minka Kelly), and Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) as well as Julie Taylor (Aimee Teegarden) and Landry Clark (Jesse Plemons), whose lives have also been affected by the town’s redistricting. Additionally, Coach Taylor finds himself further troubled by a new rivalry with his former team, the Dillon Panthers, headed up by his replacement Wade Aikman (Drew Waters) and the man who masterminded his downfall, Joe McCoy (D.W Moffett).
A Friday Night Lights insider tells me the addition of pretty newcomer Madison Burge as Becky the beauty pageant princess will cause scandal in a storyline involving Tami Taylor and Tim Riggins. That’s an interesting threesome, ain’t it?
Becky comes from a working class family and is raised by a single mom. She uses her looks to get what she wants. And when that fails, she can always fall back on her charm and humor. It’s logical to assume that Tami will be her principal. But since Becky’s only fifteen, what could she possibly be doing with Tim Riggins?
With the return of Friday Night Lights right around the corner, discussion has centered on how the critically acclaimed NBC and DirecTV series will wrap up the story lines of all the kids who graduated from Dillon High School and are now going to college.
Not even the actors know the answer to that.
Jesse Plemons (Landry Clarke) revealed that the cast isn’t even shooting the new season until the beginning of September. Until then, all we can do is speculate.
“They kind of left everything up in the air,” said Plemons. “I think Tyra’s not going to be there the first season, but she might be there the second (of the two remaining).”
He joked, “Maybe we’ll be texting back and forth, or I’ll get an email from Tyra.”
As for the show’s storybook romance, Aimee Teegarden has high hopes for Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) and her character, Julie in Season 4 of Friday Night Lights:
“I do [want to see them together]. There’s something special and sweet about Julie and Matt’s relationship that it has to stay together, or else I feel like we’ll have a lot of upset fans.”
“Hopefully Matt breaks up with Julie though, so fans can’t blame me.”
Are Matt and Julie’s romantic days over, or at least numbered, on Friday Night Lights? Not according to cast member Aimee Teegarden, who said that even Zach Gilford’s reduced role on Friday Night Lights this season can keep Matt and Julie apart.
“It’s all about Matt and Julie,” she professed, “it’s forever-after love.”
Swoon. Check out EW’s interview with the talented teen post-jump …
