‘The Equalizer’ Spinoff in the Works at CBS

The Equalizer could be CBS’ next big franchise. According to Deadline, the Queen Latifah-led crime drama is set to introduce two new characters in Season 5, Episode 16 that could branch into their own series. Casting has started for a young, skilled female martial artist, weapons expert, and criminologist with a secret origin story who turns to Latfiah’s Robyn McCall for help. Casting is also looking for someone to play an older male who is a former top CIA operative. As of now, the guest star roles could turn into series regular options for a spinoff.

Reportedly, the upcoming episode of The Equalizer is not expected to be a backdoor pilot, but more so introducing new characters in regular episodes, likely in the case that the spinoff doesn’t go to series and the characters could still appear on the Mothership. The same was done for Fire Country’s spinoff Sheriff Country. Morena Baccarin’s Sheriff Mickey Fox was introduced in an episode last season, with the potential to get her own spinoff, and if that didn’t happen, the hope was for her to still return for Fire Country. Sheriff Country wound up getting a straight-to-series order for the 2025-26 season, and the same thing could also happen for Jared Padalecki, who is in the midst of a three-episode arc on the firefighter series as Captain Camden Casey.

The Equalizer is currently in its fifth season, which came after Latifah was in negotiations with CBS. Despite the announcement for Season 5 taking a while, the show wasn’t really ever in danger since there were previous reports that she was negotiating with the network. It was just a matter of when they would come to an agreement. Season 5 premiered on Oct. 20, meaning there is still much to look forward to aside from the potential spinoff.

It’s unknown how things will turn out with the spinoff, but more information on the new characters and the storyline will likely be released in the coming months. CBS also probably won’t make a decision on the spinoff until after the episode airs. Even if it doesn’t go to series, it still sounds like there could be enough to keep the characters on in recurring roles at the very least, especially since at least one of them has a history with Robyn. In the meantime, new episodes of The Equalizer air on Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.