‘The Rookie’ Boss Gives ‘North’ Spinoff Update: ‘It Has a Different Energy’
Exclusive
What To Know
- The Rookie: North pilot, starring Jay Ellis as the oldest rookie in the Pierce County Police Department, has been completed.
- Showrunner Alexi Hawley expressed optimism about the spinoff and shares why it’s different from the original.
The Rookie universe could be expanding, and chances are we’ll know if a second spinoff is going to be ordered to series soon; networks announce their plans for the following season in mid-May. The Rookie: North pilot is completed.
“I’m hoping to hear soon,” The Rookie showrunner Alexi Hawley told TV Insider while discussing the upcoming Season 8 finale. “I feel incredibly optimistic. I’m an optimistic person by nature, but I do feel like it’s warranted. The pilot came out great.”
The series would star Jay Ellis as Alex Holland, who becomes the oldest rookie of the Pierce County Police Department after a violent home invasion. The cast also includes Chris Sullivan as the watch commander, Janet Montgomery as Alex’s training officer, Froy Gutierrez and Mya Lowe as rookies, and Karen Fukuhara and Malik Watson as training officers.
“Jay is a no-brainer. He’s such a TV star. He’s so talented,” raved Hawley. “The rest of the cast was equally great. It was one of those things where it felt like we’d been working together forever, even with the pilot. There was an ease. I did put them through some police training. We sort of separated them into the rookies train together and the TOs and Chris Sullivan trained together. So you already start to do those lines, the differences between them.”
He continued, “We just had a really special experience and I think that it couldn’t have come together better. And it does feel like The Rookie and yet not. I think the sort of really changing location to Pacific Northwest, and it just has a different vibe. It has a different energy, which is really cool. So yeah, I’m excited.”
As for any potential crossovers between the two shows, should North be picked up, Hawley previously admitted that would be a bit “challenging.” He explained to us in January, “Physically, we’re going to shoot at least the pilot up in Vancouver. And probably we would shoot the series there, too, just because of the location is Pacific Northwest, which you can’t do in L.A.”
Are you hoping to see The Rookie: North join ABC’s lineup in the 2026-2027 season? Let us know in the comments section below.
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L
Don't care one way or another. Networks don't care about fans anymore. Doesn't make sense that they cut the amount of episodes of The Rookie ,but yet they are going to have a spinoff. Why not just concentrate on a fan favorite and just give us 22 episodes?
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G
Honestly don’t care one way or another. The Networks are playing games. Cancellation of shows. Cutting episodes and stars air times. Why bother getting invested in new shows??
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J
My wife and I love the Rookie, but Ive noticed that it is slowly turning into another “911” show. Unbelievable plots, scenerios, and story lines that dont continue to the next episode. Things that the writers are trying to get by with imply that they think their viewers are stupid. I can come up with many different examples, but all I want to say is that they better change or they will lose a lot of viewers with just plain common sense due to the lack of “realistic” story lines. Be careful.
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L
The appeal of The Rookie is Nathan. I won't be at all surprised if this doesn't do very well if it gets picked up. I understand the desire to continue the show but right now the focus should be on making more of what people already like.
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P
You should just concentrate on one show stop making spin-offs rookie fed didn't come to anything so it's just stop there just concentrate on the rookie.