‘New Girl’ season 5 spoilers: What’s next after that big engagement?

At the end of “New Girl” season 4, there was a variety of surprises that took place Tuesday night, beginning of course with an engagement. Someone on the show is getting hitched! The funnest part about it, though, was the simple fact that it was a couple in Cece and Schmidt who were not even dating at the time that it happened.

So where are we taking that story moving forward? Well, it’s somewhat interesting thanks to the timeline of things. Due to cast member Zooey Deschanel being pregnant, the show is already preparing for the future, and also knows precisely where the story is going to go. For more on that, just take a look at what executive producer Liz Meriwether said to Entertainment Weekly:

“We’ve actually shot the first four episodes of season 5 because of Zooey’s pregnancy, so I actually know exactly where the next season picks up. Season 5 starts a couple days after the engagement and then inside the episode we jump forward a couple months. The premiere is an engagement party that Jess is throwing for Cece and Schmidt.”

Meriwether also added that Deschanel will be gone for four episodes next season, and while that may seem awkward given both the name of the series and the departure of Damon Wayans Jr. after his first full season as a regular, this will give the writers a chance to explore some fun new things about their other main characters. As a longtime Nick Miller fan, this excites us.