FOX Scraps Promising Cop Show
Fox has reportedly passed on The Last Police, a pilot that mixed science fiction with police procedural. Although the show's cast was headlined by Another Life's Blu Hunt and Good Girls star Reno Wilson, the network decided against putting the show on air. It was written by Kyle Killen, who created Lone Star and Awake.
The Last Police was based on the novel The Last Policeman by Ben Winters, reports Deadline. Hunt starred as Detective MacKenzie Ward, a young police detective who believes she now has a special purpose in life after a failed suicide attempt. Wilson was cast as the train-wreck Detective David Duran, who embraces the possibility of the world ending after suffering a devastating personal tragedy. Ward is convinced she can save humanity while an asteroid comes close to Earth, and Wilson is not sure if he will enjoy her failing or the world ending more.
Killen served as writer, director, and executive producer for the show through his Chapter Eleven production banner. He signed an overall, broadcast-only talent deal with Fox in 2020. Killen's shows do have a habit of not running very long, despite earning critical acclaim. Lone Star was an infamous ratings disaster in 2010, with Fox canceling the show after two episodes aired. NBC canceled Awake after one season in 2012. Mind Games was canceled in 2015 by ABC before the last five episodes aired.
Killen also wrote Jodie Foster's The Beaver (2011), and the Josh Duhamel-starring Scenic Route (2013). He received a "story by" credit on Netflix's Fear Street: Part One – 1994. Killen and Steven Kane also developed the long-gestating series based on the Halo video game franchise, which is finally expected to hit Paramount+ this year.
This news is another blow to Hunt's career. The New Mutants star was also cast in another promising pilot, National Parks Investigations, but ABC decided not to move forward with that project in July 2021. The pilot was co-written by Kevin Costner and followed a group of National Parks Service agents who solve crimes while protecting the U.S.' beautiful parks. Hunt was cast as the fun-loving Park Ranger Nore Yazzie. Hunt can be seen in Netflix's Another Life, which ran from 2019 to 2021. She also starred in The CW's The Originals, a spinoff of The Vampire Diaries that aired from 2013 to 2018.