‘The Rookie’ Season 7 Just Got an Interesting Update

The big picture

• The Rookie
  's seventh season will have 18 episodes, returning to standalone stories with serialized elements.
• Season 7 production is underway, aiming for a continuous 8-episode run without interruption.
• Showrunner Alexi Hawley hints at exploring character development and taking risks next season.

Since debuting in October 2018, the police procedural drama, The Rookie, has earned a loyal and consistent following throughout his career. The ABC drama has been successful for a number of reasons, one of which is its ability to not take itself too seriously, often with a healthy dose of comedy. The show's first season ran for 20 episodes, as did its second season. A third season of Pandemic success saw the episodes reduced to 14 episodes, before seasons 4 and 5 picked up, with 22 episodes each. However, with the 2023 WAG and SAG-AFTRA strikes affecting much of Hollywood production, Season 6 was only able to deliver a truncated 10-episode run. A seventh season of the show is expected to arrive in 2025, with the series star (Nathan Fillion) revealing it the show will begin production this month. The showrunner of the series has an update on the episode count for the upcoming season.

While talking to TV lineshowrunner Alexi Hawley talked about future direction The Rookie would have in terms of its episode count, revealing that season 7 will have more episodes than its predecessor. While he noted that he was interested in doing more episodes, he suggests that's what audiences want with an 18-episode Season 7 underway. Hawley's comments say:

“I think we're going to go back to being more of a stand-alone show with serialized elements,” showrunner Alexi Hawley told me, “because it's going to be a longer season and I think people really like it. Also, there's a lot of different ways to telling stories, whether it's the big event-type episodes, the more romantic episodes, or with a big guest star, so it's going to be fun to come back to.

What will season 7 be about?

With season 6, the show's writers had to get creative, as they only had 10 episodes to tell their story in what is usually an expansive series. Heading into Season 7 and with production already underway, the plan is to have a series of episodes lined up before the show returns in 2025. “There would be too many gaps, and the fans don't love it. So they We're really trying to get us in a lineup where we can give eight episodes in a row without interruption, and for that I appreciate it.” Eric Winterhe said about the upcoming season.

Season 7's story details remain scarce at the moment, but there are several different plot threads likely to be explored when the show returns. The showrunner Hawley, a a previous interviewteased a bigger season 7, saying:

“…we know we've got some big shoes to fill after season six. We've made some big changes and I love that we're continuing to challenge ourselves and, look, we're doing even better, but at the same time, how we're doing it I feel very fortunate that we have fun every week, even if we do things that are very high stakes or tragic or whatever, that tonally, because we do everything, it allows us to really give you an episode every week that really keeps you on edge of your seat.”

The Rookie is available to stream on Hulu in the US