{"id":770804,"date":"2026-05-03T17:03:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T17:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/770804\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T17:03:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T17:03:21","slug":"the-rookie-gets-crossovers-with-spinoff-north-first-has-been-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/770804\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Rookie’ Gets Crossovers With Spinoff ‘North’, First Has Been Shot"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWith ABC\u2019s upfront presentation only 10 days away, the network is expected to make a decision on its drama pilot The Rookie<\/a>: North in the coming week. The Rookie spinoff remains in strong contention as evidenced by the fact that ABC only passed on its other pilot<\/a>, comedy pilot Do You Want Kids?, earlier this week. (Broadcast networks often make pass calls first before they proceed with pickups.)<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Deadline has reported<\/a>, it has come down to The Rookie: North<\/a>, starring Jay Ellis<\/a>, and freshman series R.J. Decker, starring Scott Speedman. It could be one or the other, with The Rookie: North having a slight edge, or both with reduced orders (and other returning series possibly getting an episode order haircut) to make the budget work. <\/p>\n

\n\tA big selling point for The Rookie: North is the crossover possibilities with the mothership The Rookie, starring Nathan Fillion<\/a>, which has been renewed for a ninth season<\/a>. Crossovers continue to do well as marketing stunts that drive up viewership. ABC did them with Grey\u2019s Anatomy and Station 19 as well as The Rookie and former spinoff The Rookie: Feds; 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Nashville did a crossover event this season. <\/p>\n

\n\tIf The Rookie: North is picked up to series, expect crossovers, The Rookie and The Rookie: North creator, executive producer and showrunner Alexi Hawley<\/a> said. That will kick off right off the bat as The Rookie: North pilot features an appearance by Fillion as his Rookie character John Nolan. (Fillion also executive produces the spinoff.)<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s a spoiler to say, there\u2019s a bit of crossover with Nathan in the pilot,\u201d Hawley said in an interview with Deadline tied to the Season 8 finale of The Rookie. \u201cBeyond that, organic opportunities, for sure, it\u2019s harder obviously, with the Vancouver or the Pacific Northwest of it all and LA. Feds was designed on purpose with a lot of crossovers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Rookie is set and films in Los Angeles. The Rookie: North is set in the Pacific Northwest and films in Vancouver. Like The Rookie, short-lived spinoff The Rookie: Feds was based in Los Angeles. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think ultimately it was less important for the network that that be a factor in, like a certain number a season which I think freezes up to a certain extent, we don\u2019t have to do that, but I\u2019m looking for ways to cross over in both directions; honestly, I think you have to do that,\u201d Hawley said. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019ll be a multitude a season, but I think maybe a couple episodes, or two or three episodes a season. You find a storyline that crosses over, it would be kind of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Rookie: North centers on Alex Holland (Ellis) who believed his mid-life wasn\u2019t worthy of a crisis. But after a violent home invasion ignites a dormant purpose, Alex battles a lifetime of failed commitments by joining the Pierce County Police Department as its oldest rookie.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe pilot came out great,\u201d Hawley told Deadline earlier this month<\/a>. \u201cThe network seems super happy with it. You never know until you know but we have a really amazing cast, led by Jay Ellis who\u2019s a star; it was a joy to make that with him and the rest of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEllis also gave the pilot his stamp of approval<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI have seen the pilot twice, I think it\u2019s great,\u201d he recently told Deadline. \u201cI think you\u2019re gonna fall in love with all these characters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Rookie Season 8 finale premieres May 4 at 10 PM on ABC and next day on Hulu. Check back on Deadline for Hawley\u2019s postmortem interview, which will run immediately after the episode airs on the East Coast. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With ABC\u2019s upfront presentation only 10 days away, the network is expected to make a decision on its…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":770805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[316039,171,301335,36735,90973,283690,173,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-770804","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-alexi-hawley","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-jay-ellis","11":"tag-nathan-fillion","12":"tag-the-rookie","13":"tag-the-rookie-north","14":"tag-tv","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116511730107808625","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}