“I Always Really Liked Them”: ‘The Rookie’ Showrunner Wants To Reunite a Fan-Favorite ‘The Rookie: Feds’ Ship

ABC’s The Rookie has, across its seven seasons, proven to be a successful venture for the network. The show harbored visions of expanding the franchise, first airing a two-episode backdoor pilot for The Rookie: Feds during The Rookie Season 4, and by September 2022, the spin-off officially premiered. While the original series follows Nathan Fillion‘s John Nolan, the spin-off stars Niecy Nash as Simone Clark, a guidance counselor who becomes the oldest trainee in the FBI Academy. While the show enjoyed decent ratings, the show was canceled by ABC after the first season. So, might we be seeing more of the spin-off’s stars in the flagship series?

The flagship series has already invited some of Feds cast members, including Britt Robertson and Kevin Zegers, who play Laura Stensen and Brendon Acres, as guest stars. Showrunner Alexi Hawley already has some interesting angles to explore in its storyline, but he confirms that Laura and Brendon’s dynamic is one he enjoys and hopes to get them back together again in the flagship series. Hawley shared his thoughts with Screen Rant, when the showrunner was asked if he’d hoped to build a romance between Laura and Brendon, and his comments read:

“Down the road, for sure, I’d like to see them together again. Some of it is literally just about availability and stuff like that. We’ve had Felix back, we’ve had Antoinette and him back as well. We just haven’t managed to land the right story with the right availability to get them back together. But I always really liked them.“

The pathway towards romance between Laura and Brendon remains a bit tricky. The pair were involved romantically with other people throughout The Rooke: Feds. The Rookie‘s current season has confirmed that Brendon is still dating the FBI’s lab tech and forensic biologist, Antoinette Benneteau. A potential romance between the pair is likely to mimic the famed will they/won’t they dynamic of the flagship series’ Chenford.

Chenford Might Return…at Some Point

Lucy (Melissa O’Neil) and Tim (Eric Winter) form the romantic couple known as Chenford. Theirs has been a rocky romance for some time now, but the pair seem consistently close to reuniting with one another. Showrunner Hawley previously shared that, should the pair be reunited, it’d not come easily. “I didn’t want to make it easy, partly because I felt like what Tim had done to her, the way he broke up with her, the way he punished himself by punishing her was fairly seismic,” Hawley explained. “And I felt like it would be a disservice to the characters if we just had a couple of episodes of penalty box and then they were back together.”