‘Law & Order: SVU’ Creator Dick Wolf Eyes ‘New York Undercover’ Reboot on ABC

Law & Order franchise mastermind Dick Wolf is looking to revive one of his earlier projects, New York Undercover, at ABC.

According to Deadline, ABC enlisted Hand of God creator Ben Watkins to write the pilot. It will be a co-production between Universal TV, where Wolf’s Wolf Entertainment is based, and ABC Studios.

The executive producers will be Wolf, Watkins and Aurthur Forney and Peter Jankowski of Wolf Entertainment.

The original New York Undercover aired on Fox for four seasons from 1994 to 1998 and was created by Wolf and Kevin Arkadie. Malik Yoba and Michael DeLorenzo starred as undercover detectives at New York’s Fourth Precinct. The show was famously the first network TV drama starring two people of color in the leading roles.

The rest of the cast included Patti D’Arbanville-Wuinn, Lauren Velez and Jonathan LaPaglia. The fourth season starred an almost entirely new cast, aside from Yoba and Velez, with Marisa Ryan, Josh Hopkins and Tommy Ford joining.

According to Deadline, Fox was interested in the series, but ultimately, ABC won out. It will be Wolf’s first show on the Disney-owned network since his failed 2003 Dragnet reboot.

Rick Rosen, WME’s head of television, broadcast and sports, and Wolf’s agent, teased a new project from his client during a talk at the Paley Center in Beverly Hills Tuesday. Wolf “is reviving one of his shows from years ago — it’s a franchise you can re-do” that “doesn’t necessarily have to have the same cast” to succeed, Rosen said.

Wolf has several other projects in the works. NBC already put in a series order for Law & Order: Hate Crimes, which will start next season. His new CBS show FBI also got a full season, and NBC is still airing the four Chicago shows — Chicago Fire, Chicago Med and Chicago P.D.

Lastly, the only Law & Order show still on the air, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, is now in its record-tying 20th season.

Coincidentally, this is not the only ABC New York cop drama reboot involving someone who worked on Amazon’s short-lived Hand of God series. Alona Tal is starring in the network’s upcoming reboot of NYPD Blue, which centers on the son of Dennis Franz’s character from the iconic original series.

Watkins created Amazon’s Hand of God, which starred Sons of Anarchy‘s Ron Perlman as a corrupt judge who suddenly believes God has put him on a path of vigilante justice. The series ran only two seasons and also starred Dana Delany and Garret Dillahunt.

Watkins was also a writer and producer on USA Network’s Burn Notice. Watkins is also an executive producer on Apple’s upcoming show Are You Sleeping with Octavia Spencer, Aaron Paul and Lizzy Caplan.

Photo credit: Tibrina Hobson/Getty Images