"The Bear" Releases a Surprise Prequel Episode

The two stars also wrote the special, set years before "The Bear."

Kudos to The Bear, which pulled off a genuine surprise today with the debut of a special prequel episode no fan was aware existed beforehand.

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Today on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+, a special standalone prequel special for FX's The Bear arrived, entitled Gary.
There had been no expectation for this one-hour special, which makes sense given it had not been announced beforehand when the upcoming Season 5 of The Bear went into production.
Set a few years before The Bear, Gary focuses on Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and Mikey (Jon Bernthal) on a work trip that takes them from their home in Chicago to Gary, Indiana.
Moss-Bachrach is a series regular on The Bear, while Bernthal's Mikey is a pivotal character in The Bear's history. Though he died before the events of the show's first season, we've seen him several times thanks to flashbacks.
Bernthal and Moss-Bachrach wrote Gary together, making it a busy month for Bernthal co-writing projects featuring ongoing characters he's portraying, as he also co-wrote next week's Disney+ special, The Punisher: One Last Kill.
Bernthal and Moss-Bachrach are friends and frequent collaborators, with the two both also appearing in the first season of The Punisher series on Netflix -- where Moss-Bachrach played Micro, a totally different Marvel character years before he'd play The Thing in The Fantastic Four: First Steps -- and currently starring together on Broadway in Dog Day Afternoon.
The Bear creator Christopher Storer directed Gary.

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On Instagram, Moss-Bachrach wrote "Making this was a dream come true. Thanks to the beautiful people of Gary, Indiana and as always Chicago, Illinois."
Gary arrives in the lead-up to The Bear Season 5 in June (exact date TBA), which is expected to be the final season of the series, as amusingly first revealed by recurring guest star Jamie Lee Curtis.

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