New Details About Potential ‘Rookie’ Spinoff Emerge

It sounds like the potential new spinoff from The Rookie is getting closer to becoming a reality.

An order for a pilot for The Rookie North, from the original series’ creator Alexi Hawley, “has been gaining momentum,” according to Deadline. They’re waiting on the casting of the lead, with “a handful of known actors … approached for the role.”

The outlet also has new details about the potential spinoff’s plot and lead character. It’s to be set in Washington state, and while it was going to be similar to Nathan Fillion‘s John Nolan becoming the oldest rookie in the LAPD when he changed careers, new casting notices for the lead reveal that the character, “tentatively named Alex [is] a former overachiever who becomes a rookie cop after his life did not go as planned.” The show would also include training officers, rookies, and a police chief.

When TV Insider spoke with Alexi Hawley in May about The Rookie Season 7 finale, we got an update on the spinoff. He revealed, “There’s a script that I’ve been going back and forth with ABC about. They give notes and I do the work and I’m an ever-hopeful human being. And so I would love nothing more than to expand the universe and go make it. So we’ll see. I don’t know. I mean the business right now is a little what it is, but I mean, I remain hopeful. We’ll see what happens.”

He added that his plan was for the potential spinoff to be “another patrol show set somewhere else. All I can really say is, I think the magic of Rookie does live in the fact that anytime they get out of their police cars, anything can happen. And I think that  that’s something that I would try and replicate in a spinoff.”

News first came of this potential spinoff in December 2024. It follows the one-season run of The Rookie: Feds, which saw Niecy Nash play the oldest rookie in the FBI academy who was assigned to the Los Angeles field office. Feds cast members have continued to appear on The Rookie even after its cancellation.

“There was a conversation with ABC after the sad cancellation of Feds about whether I could keep them in our universe. They’re phenomenal and if those actors are available—and there’s going to come a time where they’re not, they’re so good—I want to keep them in our world,” Hawley told us after the Season 6 finale, which saw some of the agents appear. He waited to bring them back at that point because “I wanted to let that [cancellation] sort of breathe a bit, but then it’s about what’s a story worthy of seeing them again.”

He noted at the time how much scheduling comes into play. “I definitely want to use them where it’s most impactful story-wise. I don’t want to waste their time and have them show up for one scene,” he explained. “But yeah, I’d love to use them for the rest of our life as Rookie.”

What would you want to see in a new Rookie spinoff? Let us know in the comments section below.