EXCLUSIVE: Chris Sullivan (This Is Us, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2) has been cast in the ABC drama pilot The Rookie: North, Alexi Hawley’s spinoff of his ABC drama series The Rookie.
Sullivan will portray Sgt. Nix, a recently promoted Watch Commander whose heart still wants to be out on the street. If the project gets picked up to series, Sullivan’s role will be series regular. He will star opposite Insecure alum Jay Ellis, who leads the project.
The Rookie: North follows Alex Holland (Ellis), who believed his midlife wasn’t worthy of a crisis. But after a violent home invasion ignites a dormant purpose, Alex battles a lifetime of failed commitments in Los Angeles by joining the Pierce County Police Department in Washington as its oldest rookie. Policing from the urban coast to the rural forest where backup isn’t just five 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.
The pilot is set to shoot late next month in Vancouver, Hawley told Deadline earlier this month while promoting The Rookie‘s eighth season. He also discussed last year why it was appealing for him to set a new series outside of the major-city locations where procedurals are usually set.
“I think ultimately, what I got excited about was, I think every patrol cop show versus a procedural has really been big-city oriented, New York, Boston, Chicago, L.A., so I like the idea that this place is a bigger slice of America, where people live,” Hawley said last May. “The county that they’re policing does include Tacoma, so there is some urban, but at the same time, it’s also the suburbs and the exurbs, and it’s also the meth lab in the woods, and a National Park, and there’s a military base. That sort of county is really interesting.”
He continued, “I thought it would just immediately set the show apart visually and then thematically; I think our lead, the character that Jay plays, is a guy who never really found something he’s passionate about before this. And part of that has to do with a tragedy in his past, which we get into a little bit. So that was a little bit of a different way in; it is a guy who’s a little more lost. I think Nathan’s character was a successful professional, obviously blue collar or whatever, he was just a little lost after his divorce and everything. But this is just a little different.”
As previously reported, The Rookie: North is a stand-alone pilot; it will not be embedded into The Rookie the way the spinoff The Rookie: Feds starring Niecy Nash was. And because The Rookie: North is targeting next season, there are no plans for Ellis to appear on the mothership series this season.
Lionsgate and 20th Television are the studios. Hawley is the show’s writer and executive producer through his Perfectman Pictures. Additional EPs include Nathan Fillion, Mark Gordon, Bill Norcross and Michelle Chapman.
Sullivan, a two-time Emmy nominee, is best known for his six seasons starring as Toby in the hit NBC drama This Is Us. He can currently be seen starring as prosecutor Bill Kunkle Jr. in Peacock’s limited series Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy. Additional TV credits include Lena Dunham’s Camping, HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, CBS All Access/Paramount+’s The Good Fight, Netflix’s Stranger Things, Steven Soderbergh’s Cinemax series The Knick, and Peacock’s The Calling. He reunited with Soderbergh last year to star in the feature Presence.
On the film side, he played Taserface in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. He will next be seen starring in Amazon MGM Studios’ Mercy opposite Chris Pratt.
Sullivan is repped by Gersh, Suskin/Karshan Management, and Hansen Jacobson Teller.