James Lesure joins the cast of The Rookie spin-off, The Rookie: Feds, led by Niecy Nash-Betts. Frankie Faison, Kat Foster, Felix Solis, Britt Robertson, and Kevin Zegers have also been cast in the new series.
The spinoff, follows the premise of The Rookie, which centers on the oldest rookie in the LAPD. However, the new version will center on the FBI’s program and its oldest rookie in the academy, Simone Clark (Nash-Betts).
The new series was introduced during a two-episode arc of the fourth season of The Rookie. In the embedded pilot episodes, Officer John Nolan (Nathan Fillion) and the LA division of the FBI enlist the help of FBI trainee Simone Clark (Nash) when one of her former students is suspected of terrorism following an explosion at a local power station.
Lesure will play Carter Hope. Conservative and a by-the-book traditionalist, Carter’s a model FBI agent who joined the bureau after a successful career as a lawyer in the Justice Department. Now he’s got the most challenging task of his career: training the outspoken and outside-the-box rookie Clark, whose style will be a challenge to his painfully won beliefs.
Foster stars as Special Agent Casey Fox, and Solis is Special Agent Matthew Garza in the offshoot. Robertson and Zegers will play Laura Stensen and Brendon Acres, respectively.
Hawley and Winter executive produce The Rookie: Feds with Mark Gordon, Nash-Betts, Fillion, Michelle Chapman, Bill Norcross and Corey Miller. Entertainment One is the lead studio and international distributor of the series, a co-production with ABC Signature. The Rookie: Feds is set to premiere in the fall, airing in the Tuesday 10 PM slot behind Bachelor In Paradise.
Lesure recently appeared in the HBO series Winning Rime as Julius Erving (Dr. J) and starred opposite Katey Sagal and Andy Garcia in ABC’s Rebel. His series credits also include Las Vegas, Uncle Buck, Divorce, Good Girls, Blue Bloods and Girlfriend’s Guide to Divorce. He is repped by Innovative Artists, Good Shepherd Mgmt and Meyer & Downs.
The series comes from The Rookie creator/executive producer Alexi Hawley, executive producer Mark Gordon and studios eOne and ABC Signature. Much like the Chicago, Law & Order, FBI, 9-1-1 and the Grey’s Anatomy franchises which thrive on crossovers, The Rookie and the spinoff will exist in the same universe, allowing characters to move back and forth.