The “Blue Bloods” universe is officially expanding.
via: EW
More than a year after CBS canceled the long-running police procedural Blue Bloods, the network has given a straight-to-series order to a spinoff show centered on Wahlberg's character, Danny Reagan.
Slated for air in the 2025-2026 broadcast season, Boston Blue (a working title) will follow Wahlberg's NYPD detective as he leaves the Big Apple to take up with the Boston PD. There Danny will be paired with new character Lena Peters, a detective who hails from a prominent family in Boston policing.
Over 14 seasons, Blue Bloods followed the Reagans, a similarly powerful New York police family headed up by Tom Selleck's NYPD Commissioner Frank Reagan. Wahlberg played Frank's eldest surviving son; Will Estes played Jamie Reagan, his youngest who joined the NYPD as a sergeant; and Bridget Moynahan played assistant DA Erin Reagan.
Other characters included Henry Reagan (Len Cariou), Frank's kindly father and the former commissioner; Eddie Janko-Reagan (Vanessa Ray), a police officer and Jamie's wife; Det. Maria Baez (Marisa Ramirez); and Nicky Reagan-Boyle (Sami Gayle), Erin's daughter. No casting beyond Wahlberg's has been announced for Boston Blue.
CBS revealed in November 2023 that Blue Bloods would be ending. Last June, however, Paramount Global co-CEO Brian Robbins teased that "new franchise extensions" were coming for several of the company's TV shows, including Blue Bloods.
A big question is whether and how Selleck might be involved with Boston Blue. The actor has repeatedly voiced criticisms of CBS for canceling Blue Bloods. In October, he reported feeling "kind of frustrated" by the decision, saying that while shooting the final episodes, he hadn't "wanted to talk about an ending for Blue Bloods but about it still being wildly successful."
Selleck's primary complaint has been the disjuncture between the network's decision and the enduring popularity of the series. "If you were to say to the television network, 'Here's a show you can program in the worst time slot you got, and it is going to guarantee you winning Friday night for the next 15 years,' it would be almost impossible to believe," he said, adding that the series was "always taken for granted because it performed from the get-go."
Moynahan has also mourned the conclusion of the series, saying in an April interview, "We've created such a family on set with each other and the crew — most of the crew's been with us for 14 years, so we've been through a lot of weddings, births, deaths, and everything. We've been through it all with each other."
Plot details for Boston Blue are still under wraps, but if it follows at all from the emotional Blue Bloods finale in December, there will be a lot to catch up on, from a funeral to a baby announcement to the endless litany of indictments and investigations working their ways through the system.
All 14 seasons of Blue Bloods are currently streaming on Paramount+.
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