The fourth season of the American comedy-drama television series The Bear premiered with all 10 episodes on June 25, 2025, on FX on Hulu. Christopher Storer and Joanna Calo returned as showrunners for the season. In March 2024, FX renewed The Bear for a fourth season, which began filming with the third season in February 2024, and was completed in early 2025.
Jeremy Allen White reprised his role as Carmy Berzatto, an award-winning chef who returns to his hometown of Chicago to manage the chaotic kitchen at his deceased brother's sandwich shop.
Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ayo Edebiri, Lionel Boyce, Abby Elliott, Matty Matheson, Liza Colón-Zayas, and Edwin Lee Gibson also returned from the previous season as top-billed cast. Oliver Platt, Corey Hendrix, Jon Bernthal, Jamie Lee Curtis, Robert Townsend, Gillian Jacobs, Will Poulter, and Sarah Ramos reprised their recurring roles. Rob Reiner guest-starred as business consultant Albert Schnur in what would become his final television role.
The season premiered to positive reviews from critics, though reception was more muted than prior seasons. Edebiri and Boyce co-wrote a critically acclaimed episode centered around Sydney and performances by Edebiri, White, and Curtis again received positive attention. The season finale was a unique black-box-theater-style bottle episode featuring only four key members of main cast.
Cast and characters
Main Jeremy Allen White as Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Richard "Richie" Jerimovich Ayo Edebiri as Sydney "Syd" Adamu Lionel Boyce as Marcus Brooks Abby Elliott as Natalie "Sugar" Berzatto Matty Matheson as Neil Fak Liza Colón-Zayas as Tina Marrero Edwin Lee Gibson as Ebraheim
Recurring Jamie Lee Curtis as Donna Berzatto Molly Gordon as Claire Dunlap Gillian Jacobs as Tiffany "Tiff" Jerimovich Will Poulter as Luca Rob Reiner as Albert Schnur Corey Hendrix as Gary "Sweeps" Woods Oliver Platt as Jimmy "Cicero" Kalinowski Sarah Ramos as Jessica Andrew Lopez as Garrett Rene Gube as Rene Adam Shapiro as Adam Shapiro Ricky Staffieri as Theodore Fak Christopher Zucchero as Chi-Chi Paulie James as Chuckie Chris Witaske as Pete Katinsky Robert Townsend as Emmanuel Adamu Carmen Christopher as Chester
Guest Jon Bernthal as Michael Berzatto Brian Koppelman as Nicholas "The Computer" Marshall Mitra Jouhari as Kelly Alpana Singh as herself Gary Janetti as Mr. Clark Danielle Deadwyler as Chantel Arion King as T.J. Kate Berlant as Georgie David Zayas as David Josh Hartnett as Frank Brie Larson as Francie Fak John Mulaney as Stevie Sarah Paulson as Michelle Berzatto Bob Odenkirk as "Uncle" Lee Lane Annabelle Toomey as Eva Jerimovich
Episodes
Production
Development In March 2024, preceding the release of the third season, it was announced that FX had secretly renewed The Bear for a fourth season. The season was announced to be filming back-to-back with the third season.
Writing Season 4 covers the in-universe time period from August to October 2023. The episodes "Green," "Tonnato," and "Goodbye" take place on the same day.
Cast members Ayo Edebiri and Lionel Boyce co-wrote an episode in the fourth season, their writing debuts on the series. Edebiri previously directed the third season's "Napkins".
Filming and cinematography Parts of the fourth season were filmed with the third season, beginning in February 2024, with production set to restart in 2025. John Landgraf, chairman of FX Networks, commented about the filming after the 2024 Emmys, saying "We finished most of it. We haven't finished all of it, but we finished most of it, and it will be ready same time next year." Landgraf had stated that the combined filming schedule had resulted in around sixteen and a half episodes completed between the two seasons. Cinematographer Andrew Wehde stated in 2026, "We shot [season 3], and then we shot about six episodes of [season 4]," including the wedding in "Bears" and the finale "Goodbye." However, continued Wehde, "When we came back for [season 4], Chris and our editorial team had had an opportunity to cut things from four. And what we thought we shot, six or so episodes, turned out to be three or four. And then Chris rewrote with the team, more of a companion season to work with what we already kind of shot. And so it was a really interesting thing because in hindsight, you are somewhat stuck to a visual world that you started with."
Main star Jeremy Allen White stated in an interview with Esquire UK that filming was expected to take place in February or March 2025. Filming took place in Chicago, and wrapped in early 2025.
Wedhe told Another magazine that while the early visual influences on the series came from directors like Tony Scott, Michael Mann, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Soderbergh, by seasons 3 and 4 there was an increasing Chef's Table influence on the way they shot the show. He used the same Arri Alexa LF and Panavision H-series lenses that were used to shoot the first three seasons, but changed the lighting design to achieve a new look.
Costuming Regarding the personal style of Sydney Adamu in season 4, according to costume designer Courtney Wheeler, "This season, we have a lot of Black American-based T-shirts. She's wearing a Negro league sweatshirt in one of the episodes...She's just someone who likes to collect, whether through her father or her mother, who passed away. I think clothes help ground her and convey her point of view."
Sound design According to supervising sound editor Steve "Major" Giammaria, the sound of season 4 reflects that the Bear restaurant is on "an upward trajectory, [so] the sounds are less abrasive...it's more measured. There's like a metronome, a beat to the whole thing." He described the season as less aurally "vertical" and percussive than season 3, with more "horizontal sounds," like "simmering and bubbling and dishwashing."
Editing Joanna Naugle told a film-editing podcast about her process on The Bear, "My favorite teacher at NYU was Sam Pollard, and he would always say, 'Everyone thinks continuity is the most important thing in editing. It's not. It's performance. You can get away with egregious continuity errors, if everyone's locked into the performance.' So that's definitely what I'm drawn to first and foremost. It's almost like fun as you're watching dailies to make a game of it and be like 'What's the difference between this take? What are the things I'm noticing?' If you're watching dailies they can all blur together but if you're like 'Oh, Ayo's lip quivered a little bit in this take, it really shows her vulnerability.' Or, 'Jeremy had such a funny little smirk at the end of this, that's really such a great button to the scene,' trying to look for those little moments, that's what I'll try to latch onto as I'm reviewing the footage. But also it's about finding that rhythm. Sometime the energy can be so different between takes that you're like, okay, if this is the one I want to go with, I have to use this as my skeleton and build on top of it."
Music "Fast Slow Disco," a remix of a St. Vincent song, was used in the season 4 trailer. Britain's Far Out Magazine applauded the use of music in season 4, which "continued [The Bears] great run of impeccable songs, but this time leaned in on itself to deliver the emotional punch, using recurring and revitalized songs to make its point...Love songs, all from the alternative space, litter the soundtrack: Cher, the Ramones, Elton John, and more." Time Out noted that the Ronettes had the most songs featured in season 4: "The group's vocal harmonies are sprinkled over three episodes, featuring their quintessential hits 'Baby, I Love You', '(The Best Part of) Breakin' Up' and 'Walking in the Rain'."
The producers were in less need of the show's composers, Johnny Iguana and Jeffrey Qaiyum, in season four, because their budget had increased. According to Iguana in June 2025, "If they want to have an English Beat song in one of their scenes now, they're just gonna purchase it and not ask us to make a replica. If you catch the last season and especially this coming season, there's very little original scoring. When you've got money to spend for a famous song, that's what you're gonna do."
Release The fourth season of The Bear premiered on June 25, 2025, on Hulu and Disney+.
Reception Critical response On Rotten Tomatoes, 85% of 85 critics gave the fourth season a positive review. The website's critics consensus reads, "After simmering for too long, The Bears fourth season finally turns the heat back up with a renewed sense of urgency, serving a rich meal despite tiresome wait times between courses." Metacritic assigned it a weighted average score of 72 out of 100 based on 40 reviews. It is the lowest-rated season of the series on either site.
Allison Herman of Variety called the season a "marked improvement" over the third, but added that "'better' isn't quite the same as 'enough to make the payoff worth the slog'." She praised the season's renewed focus on supporting characters neglected in the previous season, but wrote, "Season 4 can feel less like a cohesive statement in its own right than a sort of do-over, circling back to fill in gaps and pick up pieces that should've been addressed by now." Judy Berman of Time, meanwhile, found the season "just as inert" as the third, calling it "formless" and criticizing its emphasis on "quiet solo scenes" and "earnest two-handers" that feel "remarkably similar to one another". She lamented the series' overall shift from "humor and wonder and angst" to "relentless solemnity" in the third and fourth seasons. Commenting on the season finale, Berman called Ayo Edebiri's "understated performance" as Sydney "a highlight of The Bears fourth season." Liam Matthews of TheWrap praised season 4's performances and named the fourth and seventh episodes as standouts, but similarly criticized the story as shapeless and lacking in payoff, writing, "its overemphasis on character and vibe at the expense of narrative momentum leaves it repetitive and flabby." Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair praised the season's few moments of "effective growth" but also criticized its repetitive storyline and lack of character development, adding that the show's "stillness"..."makes for fatally inert television". Angie Hahn of The Hollywood Reporter described the season as "muted" and felt the show "retreat[ing] into familiar territory", writing that the season "has the feel of a show burnt out from the effort of trying to outdo itself."