Could Nathan Fillion’s Superman: Legacy Movie Role Further Delay The Rookie Season 6?

Could Nathan Fillion‘s role as a big-screen Green Lantern could put another red light in front of The Rookie Season 6?

Already, The Rookie had been pushed to a “midseason” premiere as opposed to its usual fall bow, in acknowledgment of the Writers Strike that began on May 2 and is showing no signs of ending soon.

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Now, in a second wave of castings for James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy movie (reported by Vanity Fair), Rookie headliner Fillion has been tapped to fill the role of the Green Lantern named Guy Gardner.

Additionally, Edi Gathegi (For All Mankind) and Isabela Merced will respectively fill the Superman: Legacy roles of Mister Terrific and Hawkgirl. As previously announced, the first film of Gunn’s “new DCU” will star David Corenswet (The Politician) as Kal-El/Clark Kent and Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) as Lois Lane.

Superman: Legacy is due to begin filming in January 2024. The Rookie, meanwhile, best case scenario — in a world where the WGA and AMPTP resume talks soon and somehow reach a deal by the end of July — might start up production on Season 6 in, say, early October. But again, that is a highly optimistic timetable, seeing as there have been zero negotiations on the WGA/AMPTP front since that strike began.

And that’s not factoring in any delays that might be result from a possible SAG-AFTRA strike, which could last beyond any WGA/AMPTP resolution.

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Maybe The Rookie, once the cameras get rolling, can bang out out a handful of episodes before Fillion is needed to suit up as Green Lantern? And either pre-tape some scenes (to be scattered across his absence from set) or write Officer John Nolan out for an episode or two.

Fillion of course sneaked off to film a medium-small role in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 during The Rookie‘s fourth season, with no apparent on-screen consequence. (He also had a blink-and-you-missed-it role in Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, which filmed during The Rookie Season 2.) The stickier wicket here, though, is that The Rookie might just be ramping up production on Season 6 when Superman: Legacy begins filming.

There are a lot of variables at play at this early date, but TVLine reached out to ABC for comment nonetheless. UPDATE: The Rookie showrunner Alexi Hawley, meanwhile, has responded to our tweet with a simple, “Nope!”

Want scoop on The Rookie, or for any other TV show ? Email your question to InsideLine@tvline.com, and it may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line!

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