‘The Rookie’ Boss Alexi Hawley Shares Update on Upcoming Spinoff

The Rookie creator Alexi Hawley is sharing more about the potential new spinoff.

ABC greenlit the pilot for The Rookie: North, starring Jay Ellis, in November.

Per the official logline, the series “centers on Alex Holland (Ellis), who believed his mid-life wasn’t worthy of a crisis. But after a violent home invasion ignites a dormant purpose, Alex battles a lifetime of failed commitments by joining the Pierce County Police Department as its oldest rookie. Policing from the urban coast to the rural forest where backup isn’t just 5-minutes away, Alex must prove to his skeptical training officer, his fellow rookies, and himself, that he’s finally found something worthy of the fight.”

It was first announced in December 2024 that ABC was eyeing to expand The Rookie franchise once again, and Hawley is preparing to head back to Vancouver to begin shooting the pilot at the end of February. Talking to Deadline, Hawley addressed how the series will be centering on a smaller police force where it could take over 15 minutes for backup to arrive as opposed to The Rookie’s LA squad, where “if you need the world to show up, it shows up in a giant way.”

“I thought it would just immediately set the show apart visually and then thematically; I think our lead, the character that Jay plays, is a guy who never really found something he’s passionate about before this,” he said. “And part of that has to do with a tragedy in his past, which we get into a little bit. So that was a little bit of a different way in, it is a guy who’s a little more lost. I think Nathan’s character was a successful professional, obviously blue collar or whatever, he was just a little lost after his divorce and everything. But this is just a little different.”

As for Alex’s background, Hawley says the character has “been bouncing. He went the law school route, and then something happened, and he sort of abandoned that.” Hawley also called Ellis’ casting a “dream,” saying he’s “very excited.” He continued, “I think he really opens up the show to be its own thing in a great way.”

Unlike short-lived spinoff The Rookie: Feds, which got a backdoor pilot on The Rookie, The Rookie: North is a standalone pilot, and as of now, there are no plans for Ellis to appear on the Mothership this season, which just came back for Season 8 on Tuesday. That being said, he’s not counting out future crossovers. “But down the road, in success, definitely. It’s a little harder if it’s Vancouver and LA, but it’s not impossible,” Hawley said.