Nathan Fillion’s cop procedural The Rookie is officially expanding the universe. ABC recently announced that the spinoff, titled The Rookie: Feds, starring Niecy Nash, has been ordered to series. Now Nash is sharing her reaction about the news with fans, and she is clearly excited about it.
News about the spinoff being ordered to series broke ahead of The Rookie’s Season 4 finale. Considering how well the two-part backdoor pilot performed on ABC and with the potential for plenty of stories, it’s not surprising that the network picked it up. Niecy Nash reacted to the announcement that she'll be able to continue playing FBI trainee Simone Clark on Instagram:
Seeing Niecy Nash as Simone Clark again is going to be so great. In just two episodes, we learned so much about her and her backstory, so it will be nice to really dig deeper in the series. Hopefully, this won’t be the last time she teams up with the LAPD, though, because she and John together really was great. Plus, they have similar experiences.
A potential spinoff for The Rookie was first announced in February. At that point, Niecy Nash was already excited to “bring Simone Clark to life,” even though she was only guaranteed two episodes as a guest star. It's clear that she's excited to portray the character for more episodes and more in-depth as the star of her own ABC series. It will be interesting to see how the spinoff compares to the backdoor pilot and how the now-established storylines will continue.
Meanwhile, this isn’t Niecy Nash’s first role as a police officer. The comedian has portrayed Deputy Raineesha Williams on Reno 911! for eight seasons now. Even though the two series are completely different from each other, Nash explained last month how the Comedy Central show prepared her for The Rookie, and it’s mostly due to proper training. She also played Kappa Kappa Tau’s security guard Denise Hemphill in the Fox dramedy Scream Queens.
It's unclear when The Rookie: Feds will premiere on ABC, as the network has yet to release their fall 2022 schedule. ABC may choose to pair the new show with its parent series (which has already been renewed). That pairing formula has worked for Fox with 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lone Star as well as NBC with the Law & Order and One Chicago shows, for just a few examples. Whatever the scheduling, hopefully fans won't have to wait too long to be reacquainted with Simone Clark.
For now, however, fans will just have to resort to watching the backdoor pilot on Hulu along with the rest of the episodes of The Rookie. You can also check out CinemaBlend’s 2022 TV schedule to see what else to look forward to in the coming months.
