‘Bones’ Alum to Star in New NBC Crime Drama Pilot

Bones alum Emily Deschanel is returning to the world of crime dramas with a new pilot for NBC.

Deadline reports that more than two decades after Deschanel debuted her role as forensic anthropologist Temperance “Bones” Brennan on Fox’s hit police procedural, she will star in an untitled one-hour pilot written by The Brave creator Dean Georgaris and longtime Davis Entertainment President John Fox.

The project is inspired by the work of expert profiler Dr. Ann Burgess, who was the subject of the 2024 Hulu docuseries Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer, and follows Deschanel as Professor Georgia Ryan, a “trailblazing psychologist” who challenges the criminology field by “shifting the investigative focus to the victim rather than just the perpetrator in order to uncover the crucial clues that more traditional methods leave behind.” Ryan, alongside her team, will consult with the FBI to solve the “most baffling and elusive” cases.

Georgaris executive produces for Universal Television alongside Davis Entertainment’s Fox and John Davis. Deschanel is a producer, and Burgess is a consulting producer alongside Steven Constantine.

Deschanel’s former Bones partner, David Boreanaz, will also be heading to NBC for the upcoming reboot of The Rockford Files.

Boreanaz will star as private investigator James Rockford, a role originated for TV by James Garner in the show that aired on NBC from 1974 to 1980. The reboot series is described as a “contemporary update on the classic series of the same name,” as per Deadline.

“Newly paroled after doing time for a crime he didn’t commit, James Rockford returns to his life as a private investigator using his charm and wit to solve cases around Los Angeles,” the official synopsis adds. “It doesn’t take long for his quest for legitimacy to land him squarely in the crosshairs of both local police and organized crime.”