The Rookie (TV series)
The Rookie is an American police procedural comedy-drama television series created for ABC by Alexi Hawley. The series follows John Nolan, a man in his forties, who becomes the oldest rookie at the Los Angeles Police Department. The series is produced by ABC Studios and Entertainment One.
The series stars Nathan Fillion, Alyssa Diaz, Richard T. Jones, Titus Makin Jr., Mercedes Mason, Melissa O'Neil, Afton Williamson, Mekia Cox and Eric Winter. The Rookie premiered on October 16, 2018. The first season ran until April 16, 2019. The second season ran from September 29, 2019, to May 10, 2020. In May 2020, ABC renewed the series for a third season.
Premise
The series follows John Nolan, a forty-five-year-old newly divorced man from Pennsylvania, former owner of a construction company and father of a son in college, who, after inadvertently helping police officers during a bank robbery, moves to Los Angeles to pursue a new career as a police officer in the Los Angeles Police Department. After graduating from the Police Academy as the oldest rookie on the force, Nolan must navigate the dangerous, unpredictable nature of his job and is determined to make it in his new career despite the challenges.Series lead Nathan Fillion stated during an interview that the drama was inspired by a true story as the LAPD is one of just two agencies that accepts new officers over the age of 37. The man whose story inspired the premise of the show was later revealed to be Bill Norcross, who continues to serve in the LAPD and also as executive producer on The Rookie.
Cast and characters
Main
- Nathan Fillion as John Nolan: The oldest rookie at the Los Angeles Police Department, he is assigned to the Wilshire Division. He studied law at Pennsylvania State University but dropped out upon learning his former girlfriend Sarah was pregnant and went into construction. At the age of 45, Nolan closed his construction company in Pennsylvania and moved out west to become a police officer. He is divorced with a 19-year-old son, Henry, who is a freshman in college.
- Alyssa Diaz as Angela Lopez: An LAPD training officer on the cusp of making detective-trainee, a situation which is threatened when West is assigned to her. Although she gives West a hard time, Diaz also looks out for him. She is engaged to defense attorney Wesley Evers.
- Richard T. Jones as Wade Grey: A sergeant and a watch commander of the Wilshire Station. Grey is initially against Nolan being a rookie because he feels that Nolan is having a midlife crisis and that being a police officer is not his true calling, but he later sees potential in him. Grey served in the United States Army prior to joining the LAPD. He has a daughter who is planning to go to college in the fall.
- Titus Makin Jr. as Jackson West: An eager rookie officer and the son of Commander West, head of the LAPD's Internal Affairs Division. Top of his class at the Police Academy, West strives to be the best officer he can be despite his naive personality. Despite his commitment to the LAPD, West initially froze up whenever a shooting occurred and was nearly kicked from the training program by Bradford. He eventually redeems himself and has since moved past the shootings. He is close friends with Nolan and Chen and becomes the laters roommate when he is forced to move out of his apartment after arresting his landlord. West is openly gay and is in a relationship with celebrity actor Sterling Freeman.
- Mercedes Mason as Zoe Andersen : Nolan's confident and irreverent commanding officer, Captain Andersen was a former Marine with the military police. After leaving the Corps, she spent a year with the United States Pentagon Police Criminal Investigations Directorate before joining the LAPD. Because of her prior experience, Andersen rose up the ranks very quickly to the point where some of her officers saw her more as a boss than a fellow officer. Unlike Grey, she took Nolan under her wing and believed his life experiences would benefit the station. She was killed late in the first season while protecting Nolan from an attempt on his life.
- Melissa O'Neil as Lucy Chen: An ambitious rookie cop who struggles to prove herself to Tim Bradford, her training officer. She is 28 years old and her parents are psychologists. She is close friends with Nolan and West and often hangs out with them while not on duty. She briefly had a romantic relationship with Nolan, despite it being against the rules.
- Afton Williamson as Talia Bishop : A newly promoted training officer whose first assignment was Nolan. Throughout the first season, she worked hard to make detective and work her way up to chief of police. Near the end of the first season, Bishop was revealed to have lied about having an ex-con foster brother in order to get into the police academy. She does not return for the second season, as she has moved on to U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives rather than face a possibly stalled career in the LAPD.
- Eric Winter as Tim Bradford: An overbearing training officer. He is assigned Chen as a rookie and gives her a hard time. He used to be a squad leader and served in Iraq and Afghanistan before joining the LAPD. He was initially married to a fellow cop named Isabel, but her drug addiction eventually caused their marriage to fall apart. Later in the first season, he breaks off his relationship with Isabel entirely after she gets clean and starts dating social services agent Rachel Hall in the second season after losing a bet to Chen.
- Mekia Cox as Nyla Harper : Nolan's new training officer, a detective coming off of four years of undercover work who is trying to return to her patrol roots. She is also fighting with her ex-husband for joint custody of their daughter.
Recurring
- Mircea Monroe as Isabel Bradford : Tim Bradford's ex-wife, a former undercover narcotics officer who is now a drug addict
- Danny Nucci as Sanford Motta : An arrogant major assault crimes detective who looks down on rookies
- Sara Rue as Nell Forester: A dispatcher for the LAPD who Bradford bribes in order to get the best calls
- Currie Graham as Ben McRee : Nolan's friend who lets Nolan stay in his mansion as a house guest
- Demetrius Grosse as Kevin Wolfe : A detective who is assigned to Isabel's case
- David DeSantos as Elijah Vestri : A detective who is assigned to Isabel's case
- Shawn Ashmore as Wesley Evers: A defense lawyer with whom Lopez initially clashes but then starts dating. The two become engaged near the end of the second season.
- Zayne Emory as Henry Nolan: John Nolan's son who is a freshman in college. He becomes engaged in the second season.
- Michael Beach as Percy West: Jackson's father and the commander of Internal Affairs
- Brent Huff as Smitty: A lazy training officer who lives in a trailer park across the street from the Wilshire station. He is usually only seen at roll call, and he filled in for Lopez in one episode when she rode with Nolan.
- Sarah Shahi as Jessica Russo: A former FBI hostage negotiator who now runs her own security firm and is a published author. She dated Nolan but later broke up with him in "Safety" when a pregnancy scare prompted them to realize that they wanted different things from their relationship at this time.
- Harold Perrineau as Nick Armstrong : A new night detective who assists the LAPD Wilshire Division. Nolan is assigned to him on his first day and they become fast friends. Having made detective after only four years as a patrol officer, Nolan is eager to learn from him. A widower, Armstrong lost his wife to cancer while he was on a case to catch a ruthless serial killer and has since regretted not spending more time with her while she was alive. During the season 2 finale, Armstrong was revealed to be a dirty cop working for the Armenian mob as he needed money when his wife was in the hospital. When Nolan deduces that he is the mole in the LAPD, Armstrong quickly catches on and plants his money stash in Nolan’s house to frame him. When he is apprehended by Nolan, Armstrong urges him to return home before they find the planted money.
- Ali Larter as Grace Sawyer : A doctor at Shaw Memorial Hospital. She and Nolan dated in college, but he broke up with her after discovering that Sarah was pregnant with his son Henry. She becomes the team's immediate contact when dealing with issues at the hospital, ranging from treating suspects to when any of them are injured, and she and Nolan eventually start tentatively exploring a new relationship.
- Jasmine Mathews as Rachel Hall : A social services agent who Bradford begins dating after Chen sets them up on a date as part of a bet
Notable guests
- Shawn Christian as Jeremy Hawke: Nolan's former training officer at the Academy who goes rogue
- Joelle Carter as Megan Mitchell: Hawke's ex-wife who is fighting with him over custody of their son Logan
- Niko Nicotera as Carson Miller: Isabel's former boyfriend and a drug dealer
- Jose Pablo Cantillo as Franco DeSantis: A drug dealer who steals money from a drug bust after being tipped off
- Angel Parker as Luna Grey: Wade Grey's wife and mother of their daughter Dominique
- Beau Garrett as Denise: A woman who Nolan rescues on Valentine's Day who has an unhealthy obsession with him
- Sean Maher as Caleb Jost: A prisoner who escapes from the prison bus crash in "Manhunt" but is later apprehended by Nolan, Bishop, and Russo
- Matthew Glave as Oscar Hutchinson: A prisoner who escapes from the prison bus crash but is later apprehended by Lopez and West. He later claims that West's father Percy was a dirty cop. He returns in the second-season episode "Fallout", when he has a scheduled court hearing and collaborates with another prisoner to escape from a fallout shelter during a bomb threat, but his escape attempt fails when West apprehends him once again. He reappears later in the second season in the episode "Under The Gun" as a prison inmate who is bribed by Nolan to help free the warden during a riot.
- Mario Lopez as himself: A celebrity pulled over by Bradford and Chen for running a stop sign who tries to talk his way out of a ticket as part of an integrity test by LAPD Internal Affairs
- Joel McHale as Brad Hayes: A former border patrol officer turned people smuggler for a cartel, who is placed under the protective detail of Bradford and Nolan
- Michael Trucco as Sean Delmonte: An assistant district attorney
- Jim Lau as Patrick Chen: Lucy Chen's father
- will.i.am as himself: Appears when a silent alarm is tripped at his residence, caused by a man who accidentally parachuted into the wrong yard and got stuck in a tree
- Stephen Lang as Williams: The LAPD chief of police
- Felicia Day as Dr. Morgan: A CDC task-force specialist specializing in infectious diseases
- Mark Cuban as himself: Appears when Nolan and Grey respond to a disturbance at his restaurant
- Mitch Pileggi as Rex: A bounty hunter and retired LAPD cop. He is good friends with Bradford
- Seamus Dever as Chaz Bachman: A lawyer who is arrested by Nolan and Lopez for buying drugs
- Jon Huertas as Alejandro Mejia / Cesar Ojeda: An undercover DHS agent who is compromised and nearly killed by two assailants seeking information from him
- Enver Gjokaj as Donovan: Nyla Harper's ex-husband. Harper is fighting with him over joint custody of their daughter Lila
- Carsyn Rose as Lila: Nyla Harper's daughter
- Madeleine Coghlan as Abigail: Henry Nolan's fiancée
- Lauren Tom as Mrs. Chen: Lucy Chen's mother
- Eric Weddle as himself: appeared during a Los Angeles Rams junior football camp. Was a high school football adversary of Bradford's.
- Robert Woods as himself: appeared during a Los Angeles Rams junior football camp
- Alan Tudyk as Ellroy Basso: A cleaner employed by the LAPD to help clean up crime scenes. He and Nolan later apprehend the criminals who committed the original crime when they return to the scene. He also has a crush on Nell Forester.
- Daniel Lissing as Sterling Freeman: The star of a procedural drama that Lopez and West are assigned by Grey to help after they meet him during a street chase. He later begins dating West.
- Annie Wersching as Rosalind Dyer: A serial killer who assists the LAPD in finding unrecovered bodies as part of a plea deal
- Michael Cassidy as Caleb Wright: A man whom Chen meets at a bar, who later turns out to be a serial killer and Rosalind Dyer's associate
- Pete Davidson as Pete Nolan: Nolan's half-brother whom he meets following his father's death
- Seth Green as Jordan Neil: A man who steals Nolan's identity, causing his credit score to go down
- Roselyn Sánchez as Valerie Castillo: An ambitious reporter
- Bailey Chase as Michael Banks: A DEA agent who assists Nolan and Harper during a drug raid
- Don Swayze as Sharp: A prison guard deputy at the California Correctional Facility who assists Nolan and Harper during a riot
- Jeff Pierre as Emmett Lang: A firefighter who is a friend of Bradford's. He later begins to date Chen after they meet each other at the scene of a car accident in "Control".
- Hannah Kasulka as Erin Cole: A rookie officer who is later revealed to be a dirty cop working for the Derians.
- Christopher O'Shea as Chris Rios: A rookie officer who is fatally shot by Serj Derian, leaving West devastated as the two had been close friends.
- Hrach Titizian as Ruben Derian: A member of the Derian crime family who has recruited Armstrong and Erin Cole to help him destroy evidence that implicates his brother Serj for the murder of Chris Rios.
- Themo Melikidze as Serj Derian: A member of the Derian crime family and Ruben's brother. He fatally shot Chris Rios after Rios and his training officer tried to conduct a traffic stop on the Maserati he was driving. Serj is later arrested after the LAPD conducts a raid on his house.
Episodes
Season 1 (2018–19)
Season 2 (2019–20)
Production
Development
On October 26, 2017, ABC announced a straight-to-series order for The Rookie, starring Castle star Nathan Fillion, and written by Castle executive producer and co-showrunner Alexi Hawley. Fillion and Hawley serve as executive producers, along with Mark Gordon, Nicholas Pepper, Michelle Chapman, and Jon Steinberg. The series is produced by ABC Studios and The Mark Gordon Company, and premiered on October 16, 2018. On November 5, 2018, The Rookie was picked up for full season of 20 episodes. On May 10, 2019, ABC renewed the series for a second season which premiered on September 29, 2019. On October 28, 2019, the series received a full season order of 20 episodes for the second season.On May 21, 2020, ABC renewed the series for a third season.
Casting
With the series order in October 2017, Fillion was cast as John Nolan. On February 7, 2018, Afton Williamson and Eric Winter were cast as Talia Bishop and Tim Bradford, respectively. They were shortly followed by Melissa O'Neil as Lucy Chen, Richard T. Jones as Sergeant Wade Grey, Titus Makin as Jackson West, Alyssa Diaz as Angela Lopez, and Mercedes Mason as Captain Zoe Andersen.On August 4, 2019, it was announced that Williamson would not be returning for the second season due to the alleged racial discrimination, sexual harassment, and sexual assault she suffered during the first season.
On October 2, 2019, Mekia Cox joined the cast as a new series regular, Nyla Harper for the second season.
Filming
In January 2018, Liz Friedlander signed on to direct and executive produce the pilot. Production on the pilot began on March 7, 2018, with filming taking place in Los Angeles, Oxnard, Burbank and New York City.On-set misconduct and harassment allegations
On July 26, 2019, it was reported by TVLine that Afton Williamson, who portrays Talia Bishop, would not be returning for the second season. While the outlet initially claimed that the split was amicable, Williamson, in a lengthy Instagram post, stated that she had left the series due to having "experienced racial discrimination/racially charged inappropriate comments from the hair department." Williamson also alleged that she was sexually harassed by a guest star, who was later identified as Demetrius Grosse, who portrays Kevin Wolfe in a recurring role, as well as an incident of bullying that escalated into sexual assault at a party; the head of the hair department was later identified as Sallie Ciganovich. Williamson claimed that she had gone to the showrunners multiple times with these allegations, but was ignored.Everyone involved in the allegations denied them. An investigation was commissioned through the law firm Mitchell Sillerberg and Knupp along with a third-party firm EXTTI, who conducted nearly 400 hours of interviews and examined video and other evidence. The results of the investigation were published on September 17, 2019, which found that the allegations made by Williamson had no merit, and could not be proven. Williamson stood by her claims, calling the results of the investigation "heartbreaking" and postulated that the producers had lied to cover up the truth of what happened.