Suits Creator Explains Why Gabriel Macht's Harvey Appears In Suits: LA

Suits may have ended after a nine-season run on USA Network in 2019, but the TV show’s immense popularity on Netflix in 2023 has led to this world being expanded for the 2025 TV schedule. The spinoff Suits: L.A. is a month away from premiering on NBC (with episodes becoming available to stream afterwards with a Peacock subscription), and it was announced last November that original Suits star Gabriel Macht will reprise Harvey Specter in a three-episode stint. Suits and Suits: L.A. creator Aaron Korsh has now shared why Harvey will be appearing in the latter series, and it makes sense.

This stemmed from a fan who’d asked Korsh if Gina Torres will also reprise Jessica Pearson on Suits: L.A., to which the creative said that he’s “open to everything but we do want to launch these characters on this show.”When another fan then asked why Harvey was specifically selected as the Suits character to return and if this says something about how Korsh looks at the previous show, he responded on X:

The network very much wanted one original member. If you watch, you’ll see that from a story standpoint Harvey made the most sense. I originally wrote this as its own thing not a Suits spin off so I’m not sure what that says about how I look at either one.

Basically, Aaron Korsh and the Suits: L.A. writing team needed to figure out a way to include one Suits alum on NBC’s request, and Harvey felt like the best choice. As Korsh said, he originally envisioned Suits: L.A. to be its own self-contained TV show rather than a spinoff to a basic cable hit, but once it evolved into what we’re getting in just a few weeks time, he realized Harvey was the best choice to be organically mixed into the story. Fortunately, we already have an idea of how this is being accomplished thanks to the Suits: L.A. trailer that premiered last week.

Suits LA Trailer “Welcome to the West Coast” | NBC - YouTube Suits LA Trailer “Welcome to the West Coast” | NBC - YouTube
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At the end of the trailer, lead protagonist Ted Black, played by Stephen Amell, is speaking with Troy Winbrush’s character Kevin, who lifts up a picture showing Ted with Harvey and two other guys as they’re taking a break from playing baseball. Kevin says he never liked Harvey and thought he was the only person who was cockier than Ted, which is exactly the reason Ted liked him so much. So Ted and Harvey go way back, although given how Gabriel Macht is nearly 10 years older than Amell, I would find it hard to believe that these characters went to law school together.

It’s unclear when Gabriel Macht will first appear on Suits: L.A., but I’m looking forward to learning how Harvey Specter and Ted Black are specifically connected. Stephen Amell is joined in the spinoff’s main cast by Josh McDermitt, Lex Scott Davis and Bryan Greenberg. The other recurring/guest actors include Victoria Justice, Alice Lee, Rachelle Goulding, Anita Ghanizada, Maggie Grace, Matt Letscher, Sofia Pernas, Carson A. Egan and the late John Amos in his last onscreen appearance. Aaron Korsh wrote the pilot and Victoria Mahoney directed it.

Suits: L.A. premieres Sunday, February 23 on NBC. As mentioned earlier, Suits can be found on Netflix, as well as Peacock. However, it’s been made clear that you won’t need to have seen Suits in order to follow along with what happens in Suits: L.A.

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Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.

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