THE ROOKIE: Alexi Hawley Previews How the New Rookies Shake Up Season 7 and the Premiere Case’s ‘Big Twist’

When THE ROOKIE season 7 kicks off on Tuesday, January 7, the show will introduce two new rookies to the mix: Miles (Deric Augustine) and Seth (Patrick Kelehe).

“Bringing in new rookies, it’s always a long conversation in the writers’ room about not only what great new character we can create, but how is that character impacting their training officer?” THE ROOKIE showrunner Alexi Hawley tells Give Me My Remote. “When we did Nolan-Celina back in the day, obviously Celina is a great character, but a lot of [our conversation] was, ‘She’s Nolan’s first rookie. What do we do with her that that impacts him, that adds drama to his storyline?’”

“Same thing here with Miles and Seth,” he continues. “Having Miles come in as this guy who’s a rookie, but not a rookie—he’s done two years in a Texas police department, and learned a lot of habits that are not California habits. And so, as Tim says in the first episode, you have to untrain those people. But, at its heart, to bring in a character that is cocky and confident and is not afraid of Tim as a rookie, that felt like fun, right?”

As for Lucy’s (Melissa O’Neil) new recruit, “[we] have Seth come in as this real Boy Scout,” Hawley previews. “I mean, [he] could not feel younger as a character. And [he] just really wants to do well…but yet can’t keep falling over himself. But, in that sense, the one thing Lucy never wants to become [as a training officer] is Tim, right? So she doesn’t want to yell at him, she doesn’t want to punish [Seth]. But yet [she’s thinking], ‘Come on, guy, get it together.’”

But while the team is getting used to their newest members, the premiere takes a dangerous turn.

“What I have always loved about THE ROOKIE is that we live in the unexpected,” Hawley teases. “Unlike a procedural where there’s a body drop in Act One and in Act Six, we’re going to solve it; as an audience member, even if you don’t know where it’s gonna go, you know where it’s gonna go—they’re gonna solve the case. And so I love that, ultimately, the case that the [first] episode [of season 7] becomes about is not launched in the beginning. It comes out of nowhere in a really dynamic way, which is kind of life.”

“It’s a huge episode already, by the time we get to that big twist that sort of reveals this existential threat to Los Angeles—that then brings in, let’s say, the FBI,” he continues. “And then it gets even bigger. We definitely wanted to make a movie in that first episode.”

THE ROOKIE, Season Premiere, Tuesday, January 7, 10/9c, ABC

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