Finally 2020 is delivering something good. This Is Us (Tuesdays, 9 pET, CTV) is back October 27, kicking off its fifth season with a two-hour premiere. That means fans should probably start stocking up on tissues and preparing themselves for all of the timeline twists now.Over the hiatus, the show’s actors have been dropping some serious hints about what might go down. Such as this season digging deeper into the Rebecca (Mandy Moore) and Miguel's (Jon Huertas) relationship, Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Toby (Chris Sullivan) making the decision to adopt, and Randall (Sterling K. Brown) questioning his roots. However the entire main cast and creator Dan Fogelman revealed even more about the new season during a recent conference call, setting up everything you need to know heading into the fifth chapter of the Pearson Family Chronicles.

The Pandemic is Canon

It’s impossible to ignore the coronavirus, and Fogelman acknowledges that. He says the writers knew they needed to incorporate everything happening in the world into this season, so the Pearson family will also be social distancing when the show returns. “When I was sitting down and weighing the decision of what we were going to do, just considering where our show lives, [with] this American family that has a lot of different pockets, and a lot of it spans time, it felt almost irresponsible not to kind of take on the moment,” he said during the conference.Meanwhile, in a sneak peek leading up to the premiere Kevin (Justin Hartley) is ready to share *that* pregnancy news with Kate (Chrissy Metz), and he wants to do it in person. Cue the six-feet apart, mask-wearing scene outside of Kate’s house.

Kevin has some big news, and so do we. Your official #ThisIsUs Season 5 sneak peek has arrived!

Don't miss the two-hour season premiere, Tuesday at 9/8c on @NBC. pic.twitter.com/Cb8uxnttNu— This Is Us (@NBCThisisUs) October 23, 2020

Black Lives Matter

This Is Us has never been afraid to bring up issues of race, specifically as it relates to Randall—a Black man who grew up in a white family. The crew says with the current calls for social justice and systemic change and an increased awareness of the Black Lives Matter movement, there’s a huge opportunity for the show to address the current climate. Particularly with Randall, Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) and their children—one of whom also came out as gay last season.“As Black as Randall and Beth are, they're not experts on how to metabolize all that tragedy. So there's a way that they deal with it with their kids that is sort of honest,” Kelechi Watson said. “They get to see their parents grapple with it as they're grappling with it. They try to create a space where they're in it together. They are the type of parents who invite their kids into that; it's not something that they would necessarily shield them from, but try to guide them through. That's the way we approach it.”

My TV wife says it best. “The world is a resilient place. This pain is not forever. Nothing is forever, except us.” Let’s get together for the two-hour season premiere of #ThisIsUs. Tues. 10/27 pic.twitter.com/fAomz19eNB

— Sterling K Brown (@SterlingKBrown) October 16, 2020

Brown also revealed that his character’s own unique experience with identity opens another door for conversations within the context of the show. “Randall is always questioning his identity, but never wavering from the fact that he knows he is Black,” he added. “But the way in which he was raised and the conversations that happened in his house, are not necessarily representative of the conversations that he wants to have with his children by virtue of what didn't happen.”The actor adds that his fictional parents weren’t bad parents and that they gave Randall everything they could, but conversations surrounding race didn’t happen at the dinner table.  “There's certain things that were difficult, in all honesty, in general conversations regarding race,” he said. “And [conversations] happen much more frequently in households with people of colour than they do in mainstream white families. Right? Because it's just not something that's necessarily in the forefront of the consciousness. So, yeah, Randall has like a really interesting sort of come-to-Jesus moment in these first two episodes that we'll see on Tuesday. I think it's fascinating. Hope you dig it.”

An Escape from Politics

While Fogelman wanted to incorporate much of 2020 into This Is Us’s fifth-season storylines, one thing he didn’t want to address was politics. And not because he hasn’t picked a clear side in the upcoming U.S. election (on the conference call he referred to Donald Trump as “you know who”), but because he really wanted to keep the focus on the “human experience” of it all. He also really, really wanted to give people something good to escape with. That’s why the entire crew rushed to deliver Tuesday’s two-hour premiere—which Fogelman has been writing since February, by the way—before the November 3 election.“It's really what these characters, if they're real human beings, would be dealing with in the world right now,” he explained. “We have not been afraid to touch on things like addiction or body image or race or Alzheimer's or any of the myriad things we've taken on. We've attacked it in hopefully an elegant way that speaks to what our show tries to do and tries to be. But it was not a decision made lightly.”[video_embed id='2060431']RELATED: Two Black Americans share why this is the most important vote of their lifetime [/video_embed]

Mandy Moore's Real-Life Pregnancy

In case you missed it, Moore, who plays Rebecca through various decades on the series, is expecting her first baby. As of right now, there are no plans to incorporate the pregnancy per se (other than the potential flashbacks in which she is pregnant with the triplets). However, Moore revealed that as soon as she found out she was expecting she told her boss. “I did tell Dan before I told like most of my family just because I wanted him to know in preparation for writing this season, what to sort of expect,” she said. “Oddly, I was nervous. I don’t know why. It was just the loveliest exchange.”

 

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Baby Boy Goldsmith coming early 2021 ?

A post shared by Mandy Moore (@mandymooremm) on Sep 24, 2020 at 11:40am PDT

“I was just very happy for her. We haven't really adjusted our plan,” Fogelman added. “Amongst the many challenges of this season in production, that was not a big one. We are so far ahead [with the] script that we can compensate for things as need be. And because our timelines are so split, because we live in so many timelines, I mean, there may be a brief period and window where you don't see a lot of old Rebecca on the show, because she would have some really complicated explaining to do. But other than that, we're just kind of sticking with the plan.”

Kevin and Randall have A LOT of Healing to do

When fans last left Kevin and Randall, they were probably in the worst place they’d ever been as brothers. That epic fight was about 40 years coming, as they reminded everyone on the conference call. So that means there won’t be a quick resolution between the two when the show returns. “It’s in the front and center of our premiere, and it will be in the front and center of our show for quite a bit,” Fogelman teased.“When you have fights like that, sometimes it takes an event to bring people back together,” Hartley added.

Putting our hearts and souls into this premiere. Personally: it's the hardest I've ever worked on anything. And that includes the week I did Crossfit. #ThisIsUs https://t.co/86QjSWqB5t

— Dan Fogelman (@Dan_Fogelman) October 14, 2020

A Return to a Familiar Place

One thing that’s always been fun about This Is Us is that the family travels from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, to Los Angeles, to a few cool places in between (Vietnam, anyone?). This season though, with all of the restrictions in place, the stories will be a bit more local. While Fogelman revealed it’s been one of the writers’ dreams to have the young family head to a Steelers game at some point, that definitely won’t go down this season. Instead, the family will actually spend a lot of time at another familiar location: “We’re spending a lot of time in the family cabin this year, by design,” he revealed.

Getting Closer to the End

Fogelman has always made it pretty clear that he’s done with this show after six seasons, because that’s the end point he’s always had in his head. Someone asked him if that was still the case given everything that’s happened this year, and while Fogelman joked that NBC doesn’t like it when he brings it up, it looks like the show will still end next year after all. “I drop through the floor if I talk about it too literally,” he joked before adding, “Our plan has not changed for the show. My plan has not changed.”Watch This Is Us Tuesdays at 9pET when it returns October 27 on CTV.[video_embed id='-1']BEFORE YOU GO: Wilbur the dog adorably looks after these guinea pigs [/video_embed]