Police procedurals and first responder dramas are typically known for their longevity in the TV space. These shows are among the most enduring genres in network television, with certain shows running for decades while others also expand with spin-offs and sprawling universes for a loyal fanbase. In recent times, the ABC police procedural, The Rookie, has established itself as one of the most beloved shows on television, with the crime drama even scoring major streaming wins as well. The show debuted in 2018, and in the years following, its characters have evolved, as have their relationships with one another, even as they continue to work as a cohesive unit with the LAPD.
Creator and showrunner Alexi Hawley has kept fans invested with several compelling cases and engaging plotlines, which has seen the show into its eighth season. In November 2025, prior to the premiere of The Rookie Season 8 in January 2026, ABC announced its plan to expand the franchise with a spin-off, The Rookie: North. The series will serve as the second spin-off of the franchise, looking to succeed where its predecessor, the short-lived offshoot back in 2022, The Rookie: Feds, which was cancelled after only one season, failed. The Rookie: North turns to Insecure and Top Gun: Maverickstar Jay Ellis as its lead, with Ellis set to play prospective rookie cop Alex Holland. Ellis’ Holland will embark on an ambitious adventure to become a law enforcement officer at an older age. However, the actor himself has an even bigger ambition for the upcoming procedural drama.
In 2022, Ellis starred alongside filming royalty, Tom Cruise, in the blockbuster action film, Top Gun: Maverick. As with most things that have the Mission: Impossible star attached to it, Top Gun: Maverickexploded at the box office. Now, Ellis is looking for Cruise to challenge himself in an entirely different space as he encourages his mega co-star to make his way onto network television. “I would love to have Tom come be on The Rookie: North with us,” Ellis said in an interview with Us Magazine. “I’m throwing it out there.” The Insecure star would go on, later in the interview, to issue a direct request to the Mission: Impossible star. “‘Tom, [you should come join], wherever you are,'” Ellis stated. “[Since] he’s probably parachuting somewhere right now or doing a motorcycle jump over a cliff.”
Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would Be Your Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt
Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn’t work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.
🎖️Rambo
🍸James Bond
🏺Indiana Jones
🔧John McClane
🎭Ethan Hunt
01
You’re dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.
02
You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.
03
You’re pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.
04
The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.
05
How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.
06
Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.
07
Things go badly wrong and you’re captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.
08
What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn’t replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn’t know you had.
09
Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.
10
It’s the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.
Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Rambo
Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
James Bond
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Indiana Jones
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
John McClane
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Ethan Hunt
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
Jay Ellis Has Some Colossal Plans for ‘The Rookie: North’
The Rookie: North will follow a middle-aged man who joins the Pierce County Police Department as its oldest rookie after a traumatic home invasion and was written by Hawley. Karen Fukuhara (The Boys) stars alongside Ellis in a cast that also includes Chris Sullivan, Froy Gutierrez, Janet Montgomery, Mya Lowe, and Malik Watson. Ellis, however, has some ambitious ideas in his mind’s eye, as the All Her Faultstar notes that none of his former co-stars would be safe from a call asking them to come on The Rookie: North as a guest star. “I would love to have some of my co-stars come pop in,” Ellis elaborated during the course of the conversation. “It’d be a lot of fun to have some of them come pop in and do an episode or two with us. I will be calling all of them. All of you will get text messages followed up by phone calls, and I will go through your agents as well.”
That could make for a dazzling guest star slate for The Rookie: North given that Ellis’ former co-stars list includes the likes of Glen Powell, Issa Rae, Sara Snook, Kate Hudson, Danny Ramirez, and Lewis Pullman among other illustrious names. Should Ellis somehow pull it off, The Rookie: North will certainly be worth the watch. There is no set release date for The Rookie: North at the moment, but the show is also expected to hit ABC in early 2027.
Stay tuned at Collider for more.
Release Date
October 16, 2018
Showrunner
Alexi Hawley
Directors
Tori Garrett, Chi-Yoon Chung, Michael Goi, Sylvain White, Lisa Demaine, Lanre Olabisi, Bill Johnson, David McWhirter, Liz Friedlander, Daniel Willis, Toa Fraser, Anne Renton, Jon Huertas, Cherie Nowlan, TK Shom, Rob Seidenglanz, Valerie Weiss, Barbara Brown, Charissa Sanjarernsuithikul, SJ Main Muñoz, Nelson McCormick, Marcus Stokes, Adam Davidson, Anna Mastro
Writers
Corey Miller, Bill Rinier, Zoe Cheng, Mary Trahan, Ally Seibert, Liz Alper, Nick Hurwitz, Racheal Seymour, Madeleine Coghlan, David Radcliff
