Nathan Fillion Reveals Why His Action Crime Series’ Popularity Is Making New Season Problematic

The Rookie has been one of the most successful shows on network television, with its popularity continuing to increase with each subsequent season. Now, the eighth season of the series is set to premiere in January 2026, but that hasn’t stopped fans from wanting more information about what to expect from the next batch of episodes. To promote the upcoming release of The Rookie Season 8, star Nathan Fillion and executive producer Alexi Hawley attended a panel at San Diego Comic-Con to discuss the international filming locations, as well as the challenges of filming in Los Angeles due to the show’s growing popularity.

One of the most exciting announcements from The Rookie panel at SDCC 2025 was that the Season 8 premiere had already been filmed, with the characters going on an overseas adventure to Prague. The Czech Republic-centered episode will also include Mekia Cox’s Detective Nyla Harper, Bridget Regan’s antagonist character Monica Stevens and Felix Solis’ FBI Supervisory Special Agent Matt Garza, who was a main character in the canceled spin-off series The Rookie: Feds.

Hawley discussed how it was the production team’s experience at efficiently filming episodes that led to the change in location: “When I first said, hey, I want to go to Prague for Season 8, I got some looks, because that’s not a normal network television thing to do. But I think we can absorb it, because we’ve become really good at making the show.” The producer would also state that the international location made it feel like they “were making Casino Royale.”

‘The Rookie’ Has Become an Incredibly Popular Los Angeles Production

While the premiere episode may have been filmed internationally, the entire series can’t reasonably take place there— the production had to return to Los Angeles. The whole premise of The Rookie hinges on its LA backdrop, with plenty of hilarious encounters for the cast revolving around the eccentricities of the city. However, as the show has become more popular with each subsequent season, it has become harder to shoot on location.

Fillion went on to tell the SDCC attendees that filming the Rookie in LA has “been a double-edged sword; our show is becoming very popular in Los Angeles. It is an added extra challenge that people driving by in a car will scream, ‘We love The Rookie,’ and then we have to cut, go back to the beginning. I’ll take it, though.” There have been many complaints in recent years about productions outsourcing to locations outside of Los Angeles, so it makes sense that a successful series that provides jobs for industry workers would be popular with locals who see it being filmed.

The Rookie shows no signs of slowing down ahead of its eighth season premiere, and should the series continue to increase in popularity, it could very well continue with a ninth season. Nathan Fillion has also continued to find more success outside the series, most recently starring as Guy Gardner, Green Lantern, in James Gunn’s Superman. For fans who want to see more of Fillion outside The Rookie, the actor is also slated to appear in the upcoming HBO series Lanterns.