The trades have been reporting a huge crossover episode between two unrelated TV shows for a little while, now, but on Wednesday we finally learned exactly what that crazy crossover is going to entail. Apparently, Fox is going to have its long-running procedural Bones cross over with its supernatural drama Sleepy Hollow next season. Yes, the possibilities are endless.
We’ve known for a while that an oddball pairing would occur during the 2015-2016 TV season, and Fox has been planning the crossover episodes for some time. Similar to how Chicago Fire has crossed over with other NBC properties, there will be two Fox crossover episodes, one airing during the Bones timeslot and another during the Sleepy Hollow timeslot. The plan was to have these episodes hit the schedule sooner rather than later, but EW confirms that they won’t be happening until well after the fall, now.
Unfortunately, that means it's too early in the game for Fox to let us in on the logistics of the crossover episodes. We also currently don’t know if this will just be leads Abbie Mills and Ichabod Crane meeting up with Booth and Brennan and vice versa or if the full casts of both shows will be involved. What we do know is that Sleepy Hollow was a bubble show this past season, and hopefully the new timeslot and the big crossover episodes will help the show to beef up its viewership a little bit.
Outwardly, Sleepy Hollow and Bones don’t really seem to exist in the same TV realm. Sleepy Hollow is a supernatural drama, after all, and has explored concepts like magic and time travel during the course of its run. Still, while Bones used to be a much more grounded procedural, in recent seasons, Brennan has become more interested in the idea of spirituality and the fact that some things in life are unexplainable. Doubtless, this could help the team deal with the realities of the Sleepy Hollow world. Or maybe Ichabod will simply not clue her in as to who he is and what he and Ms. Mills’ mission has been for the past two seasons. Even though there is plot stuff to figure out, this sort of event episode is helped by the fact that Sleepy Hollow is set to air in the TV schedule on the same night as Bones, making a crossover incredibly convenient.
No matter what, this has the potential to be a really fun exercise for the writing staff, and a really unique segue away from the norm for regular watchers of either of the dramas. It's hard not to feel a little enthusiasm for this crossover event, so we’ll let you know when more news breaks about the two special episodes. In the meantime, Bones and Sleepy Hollow both return to the schedule on Thursday, October 1. Bones’ 11th season will begin airing at 8 p.m. ET and Sleepy Hollow’s third season will air at 9 p.m. ET.
