ABC has picked up The Rookie: North to series and ordered 10 episodes of the new spinoff, which is expected to premiere in midseason. Nathan Fillion will appear in the pilot as John Nolan, linking the new show directly back to the long-running franchise he anchors.

The new series stars Jay Ellis and comes from creator Alexi Hawley, who will serve as showrunner on both The Rookie and The Rookie: North. Fillion also executive produces both shows. The pickup was completed Sunday night, clearing the way for ABC to present its 2026-27 schedule on Tuesday with another franchise extension already in hand.

That matters because The Rookie is heading into its ninth season and is expected to return in January, giving ABC one of its more durable scripted brands a fresh offshoot at the same time the network is filling out next season’s slate. The Rookie: North is the second spinoff in the franchise, following The Rookie: Feds, which aired for one season in 2022-23.

The Rookie: North is set in the Pacific Northwest and films in Vancouver, while the original series remains set and filmed in Los Angeles. Hawley said the geography makes crossovers more complicated, saying it is harder with “the Vancouver or the Pacific Northwest of it all and L.A.,” and adding that a crossover would probably amount to “maybe a couple episodes, or two or three episodes a season.” He also noted that The Rookie: Feds was designed with crossovers in mind, calling it “designed on purpose with a lot of crossovers.”

ABC has already renewed its current scripted shows, including R.J. Decker, before making this latest pickup, a sign that the network is trying to lock in familiar properties as it prepares to unveil its next schedule. The franchise has used crossover episodes as a marketing tool before, including stunts this season for 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Nashville, and earlier joint runs involving Grey’s Anatomy, Station 19, The Rookie and The Rookie: Feds.

For ABC, the question now is not whether the brand has momentum. It does. The more immediate issue is how far the network can stretch that momentum while managing two versions of the same franchise in different cities, with Fillion once again serving as the thread that keeps them connected.