Warning: Spoilers ahead for the most recent episode of New Amsterdam. Come back once you've caught up!
Last night's emotional episode of New Amsterdam saw Dr. Floyd Reynolds perform one last life saving surgery before leaving his gig as the Head of Cardiovascular Surgery. Reynolds had promised his fiancée, Evie, that he would leave his Dam Fam behind so that they could start their lives in San Francisco, and, after keeping audiences waiting since the winter premiere to see if he'd actually go, he said all his goodbyes and took his leave.
Showrunner David Schulner spoke to CinemaBlend recently and made a somewhat confusing assertion by saying that while Reynolds is, indeed, done with New Amsterdam Medical Center, it will not be the last that fans see of the character on the show. So, viewers are now wondering if this means that Dr. Reynolds and his portrayer, Jocko Sims, will actually be helping to launch a spinoff of the popular medical drama. Here's what Sims told TV Insider about the possibility, when asked if we'd seen the last of Reynolds:
I don't think so. I think there are plenty of opportunities to see Reynolds. He'll always have a home there at New Amsterdam if he wanted to come back. There's opportunities for him to come and participate if his skills were needed for a particular surgery. There's possibilities for spinoffs [or] they could take some of the story to the West Coast, and he'd still be on the show.
OK, I'm sure that New Amsterdam fans are pumped at the sound of this development, because we all love Reynolds, his relationship with the characters and what Jocko Sims brings to the role. But, how exactly can this work?
As Jocko Sims said in his interview, since Reynolds left New Amsterdam in a good place and still in very good standing with all of his co-workers, there's no reason why he wouldn't be accepted back either for a friendly visit or if they need his skills for a difficult surgery. It would seem that something like that wouldn't happen for a while, though, seeing as how he and Evie will be getting settled on the opposite coast for at least a little bit.
Now we're getting to the other, much more intriguing possibility for Jocko Sims and Reynolds, which would be fans getting to see the character help establish a New Amsterdam spinoff. The NBC drama is incredibly popular, so much so that the series got a big three-season renewal back in January, which led to network brass admitting that they saw potential in a spinoff, even though there wasn't a concept in place for one at the time and those conversations weren't yet happening.
The idea of Reynolds taking viewers into a new hospital that needs some retooling with the way it operates is an appealing one that would give fans the amount of Reynolds we actually want and deserve, after having to now do without the character only a season and a half after getting to know him. I can easily see his stick-to-the-rules nature clashing with the administration at his new hospital, or maybe even see Reynolds shifting that perspective a bit and growing as a surgeon. Either way, it would be fun to watch!
The fact that Jocko Sims brought up the possibility of a New Amsterdam spinoff so freely tells me that there's at least some behind-the-scenes process going on right now to figure out what such a show would be about and look like, so I wouldn't be too surprised if we hear more rumblings / news about it by the end of the year. These things take time if you're gonna do them right, after all!
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more news about New Amsterdam and a potential spinoff, plus be sure to check out our 2020 midseason guide and Netflix guide to see what's airing right now!
