Nathan Fillion & Niecy Nash-Betts Tease What’s To Come In ‘The Rookie’s Fifth Season & ‘The Rookie: Feds’ First, How “Mothership” Series & Spinoff Will Overlap – Comic-Con

Matt Grobar
·5 min read

Key creatives behind ABC’s hit police procedural The Rookie and its upcoming spinoff The Rookie: Feds made an appearance at Comic-Con today to tease what’s coming up on both series and discuss the nature of the interaction planned for them.

Panelists for the conversation with TV Guide magazine’s Damian Holbrook included The Rookie‘s Nathan Fillion; The Rookie: Feds’ Niecy Nash-Betts; and the executive producers of both series, Alexi Hawley and Terence Paul Winter. While all of the above initially were believed to be stopping by San Diego for an in-person appearance, they wound up joining the talk virtually from set, to the audible dismay of fans in the room and only after some technical issues with the livestream. “Oh my God,” said Holbrook, “they haven’t figured this out yet.”

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Hawley and Winter shared that they’re currently three episodes into filming on both the fifth season of The Rookie and its offshoot’s first. The former said that the latest year of The Rookie will feel like “a real transitional” one, with “a lot of movement” — noting that the show will continue to tell “some harder stories,” with familiar villains returning.

Fillion noted that the upcoming season of the “mothership” series will see his rookie cop “elevated to another level of his job and starting at rock bottom again” — becoming the rookie once more, even as he rises in the ranks. He also shared that Nolan will be serving as a training officer to a “brand new” female rookie who makes “all the same mistakes” his character has. “[It’s] kind of brilliant, the way we take a look at life and say, what keeps you a rookie?” he said. “What in your life are you still a rookie at?”

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Hawley said that there will be a “fun storyline” ahead pertaining to the pregnancy of Nyla Harper (Mekia Cox), who will continue to enjoy a Cagney & Lacey type dynamic with Angela Lopez (Alyssa Diaz), as she returns to full-time work as a detective. Also enjoying an exciting upcoming storyline coming up, per Hawley, is attorney Wesley Evers (Shawn Ashmore), who winds up “crossing over from the defense side” into the arena of policing “in a more solid way.”

A final plot tease from The Rookie on Hawley’s part had to do with the burgeoning romance between Lucy Chen (Melissa O’Neil) and Tim Bradford (Eric Winter). “Obviously, we left quite the cliffhanger last season with the kiss which we’ve been building up to,” said The Rookie‘s creator. “There will definitely be some repercussions and fallout from that.”

Elsewhere in the panel, Nash-Betts broke down what we can expect from The Rookie: Feds, calling the new show “a perfect marriage of comedy and drama” centered on a character with which she identifies greatly. “She’s going to do it her way. She doesn’t take no for an answer,” said the actress. “She’s a lover, she’s a flirt. We’ve got a lot in common.”

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Winter said that unlike The Rookie, which is anchored in LA, The Rookie: Feds will be more geographically expansive in its storytelling, given its examination of a federal organization. “Los Angeles isn’t the only place we do our work,” he said. “We have a jet plane and we’ll often fly, and it opens up the show in a really exciting way.” The writer-EP specified that the spinoff travels not only “all over Los Angeles,” but also “all over the nation” — maybe even going overseas.

Winter noted that while we’ve already met the father of Nash-Betts’ Simone in the two-part backdoor pilot that set up the spinoff, we’ll meet more of her family members in the new series, including her twins, who have already been alluded to — also digging into the character’s love life. “There’s a very interesting love interest that launches in Episode 3 and I can’t wait for everybody to see it,” he said. “The chemistry is popping. It’s amazing.”

Like The Rookie, Feds will have plenty of comedic moments. Winter said, though, that like the mothership series, the spinoff won’t be afraid to tell real stories “about systemic issues” in an organic way.

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Hawley said that multiple crossover events have been planned for the upcoming seasons of The Rookie and The Rookie: Feds, with Winter expressing the hope that ABC will ultimately be “lousy” with these kinds of episodes. “[The shows] do live in the same universe so we want you to feel like you can bounce between [them],” Hawley added. “They stand on their own but they’re super fun to watch together.”

Later, Fillion was asked what the expansion of the Rookie universe has meant to him, noting that it’s been remarkable to be experiencing this kind of first with a TV series, after over 25 years in the industry. “This is an incredible experience,” he said, “and I am everyday really excited about where I am in life right now.”

Debuting on ABC in 2018, The Rookie centers on John Nolan (Fillion) who, after a life-altering incident, switches gears in his life and career to pursue his dream of joining the LAPD. As their oldest rookie, he’s met with skepticism from those who see him as just a walking midlife crisis. Introduced via a two-part backdoor pilot planted in The Rookie‘s fourth season, The Rookie: Feds centers on Special Agent Simone Clark (Nash-Betts), who is a force of nature, the living embodiment of a dream deferred – and the oldest rookie in the FBI Academy.

The Rookie returns for its fifth season on Sunday, September 25 at 10 p.m. ET. Hawley and Winter exec produce the series with Mark Gordon, Fillion, Michelle Chapman, Jon Steinberg and Bill Norcross. eOne is the lead studio and international distributor of the show, which is a co-production with ABC Signature — a part of Disney Television Studios.

Hawley and Winter co-created and write on The Rookie: Feds, which will also star Felix Jones, Frankie Faison, Britt Robertson, Kevin Zegers and James Lesure. The spinoff debuts on ABC on September 27.

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