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After months of delays and fan anticipation, Alexi Hawley’s The Rookie: North has finally landed a Pilot on ABC, with Jay Ellis (Top Gun: Maverick, Insecure) as the lead.
The series marks the second spin-off in Hawley's hit police procedural series The Rookie, led by Nathan Fillion. The first spin-off series, The Rookie: Feds, which debuted in 2022 and was led by Niecy Nash-Betts, was canceled after just one season in 2023, due to Hollywood double strike.
The Pilot will be written and directed by Hawley, and the filming is expected to start in late winter or early spring. The Rookie: North was announced last year, with Hawley working on a script and story. By July 2025, the spin-off was in serious work, but ABC was hesitant in ordering a Pilot without a lead actor. However, with Jay Ellis, the series finally found its leading man and earned a rightful Pilot order from the network.
More on this in our story.
The Rookie: North earns a Pilot order at ABC with Jay Ellis as the lead cast
Feds followed Simone Clark (Nash), a Washington, D.C. school counselor who joined the FBI Academy as a Special Agent at the age of 48. The first spin-off series took a different route than the flagship series, which follows Fillion's John as he becomes the oldest rookie at the Los Angeles Police Department after a midlife crisis. However, with The Rookie: North, the second spin-off is returning to the mothership series' roots and will follow a similar model and story structure.
The official synopsis for the series reads as follows:
"Alex Holland (Ellis) 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."
Like John Nolan, Ellis' Alex Holland will also join the Police department after a harrowing midlife crisis and a personal attack. Alex will have to prove that age is just a number and earn a place among his young peers and skeptical training officers.
The Rookie: North star Jay Ellis is best known for playing Bryce "Blueprint" Westbrook in The Game and Martin "Lawrence" Walker in HBO's comedy-drama series Insecure. Recently, he had recurring roles in Netflix's Running Point (which is set to return with Season 2) and Peacock's All Her Fault. He is also set to star in Mindy Kaling's upcoming drama series Not Suitable for Work on Hulu.
The Rookie: North will be executive-produced by Hawley via his Perfectman Pictures, Fillion, Mark Gordon, Michelle Chapman, and Bill Norcross.
The Rookie debuted in 2018 and has since recorded an impressive run on the network, with Season 8 scheduled to premiere on ABC in January 2026. In addition to Fillion, the show also stars Alyssa Diaz, Richard T. Jones, Melissa O'Neil, Eric Winter, Mekia Cox, Shawn Ashmore, Jenna Dewan, and Lisseth Chavez in the key roles.
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