‘Animal Kingdom’ Season 4 Air Date, Plot, Characters: Flashbacks for Smurf Expected to Happen; Here’s Why

“Animal Kingdom” Season 4 is speculated to include some flashbacks for Janine “Smurf” Barkin (Janine Cody). Although the show’s plotline is deeply rooted in the past events that happened to its characters, flashbacks aren’t really being used by the showrunners.

That is, until now. The evidence for this is the addition of actress Leila George in “Animal Kingdom” Season 4 who will be playing a character named Janine, The Wrap reported. Aside from the names, the description for George’s character closely resembles that of Smurf.

“A street savvy, scrappy survivor. Janine is a nihilist who doesn’t expect to live past 30. She runs with a small crew of men a few years older than her, vets and surfers who steal to support their vagabond life on the road. She realizes very quickly that they are the ones who should be proving themselves to her.” “Animal Kingdom” Season 4 will likely provide some backstory on Smurf and the troubled life that she went through before becoming a full-blown criminal.

If the speculation holds true, then it’s possible that audiences might be meeting Smurf’s husband soon. Transitioning to Adrian (Spencer Treat Clark), it’s been confirmed that he will be returning in “Animal Kingdom” Season 4. What’s more, it seems that the character will not be spending his time behind bars straight away, Hidden Remote reported.

The previous finale saw Adrian getting caught smuggling drugs out of the airport. Fans were worried that since Adrian has been arrested, showrunners will write him off the series. Now, that apprehension has been alleviated. Another development that fans can expect on “Animal Kingdom” Season 4 is a time jump.

Although this hasn’t been confirmed just yet, there are hints out there suggesting that this might be the case. One of which is Jake Weary’s hair. The previous installment saw the character cutting his hair short. But now it’s grown relatively longer. If “Animal Kingdom” Season 4 immediately picked up from the events of the recent finale, then showrunners will undoubtedly keep the actor’s previous haircut.

Of course, all of these are mere speculations at this point and should be taken with a grain of salt. As for the release date of “Animal Kingdom” Season 4, it could land sometime this summer. Production has now officially started and news about the fourth installment will slowly trickle down as months go by.