A continuation of the hugely popular L.A. Law franchise is in the works at ABC, as reported by Entertainment Weekly. The planned sequel series will reportedly see original series regular Blair Underwood (Deep Impact, In Treatment) reprise his role as charismatic attorney Jonathan Rollins, as confirmed by Underwood himself in recent Instagram post.
Underwood joined the cast of the hit NBC legal drama at the beginning of its second season. During a remotely conducted L.A. Law reunion roundtable discussion, the two-time Golden Globe nominee revealed how nervous he was about doing the show after its successful debut season: “The show was the number-one drama on television… It was very, very nerve-wracking. I was also nervous because I was twenty-one at the time, and the breakdown said [the character was] twenty-five to twenty-seven, no younger, no older… I just knew, as soon as they put me on camera and they saw me, they were like, ‘Ah, he looks too young,’ so I was nervous about… getting fired the first month or so.” The remote reunion can be viewed in its entirety below:
As of the announcement of the sequel series, over twenty-five years have passed since Underwood last portrayed Rollins in the L.A. Law series finale, “Finish Line.” The actor was notably absent from the 2002 made-for-TV reunion film L.A. Law: The Movie.
L.A. Law co-creator Steven Bochco (Cop Rock, Hill Street Blues) passed away in 2018, but his production company will reportedly be attached to the sequel series through the involvement of his widow Dayna (Raising the Bar) and son Jesse (Murder in the First), Entertainment Weekly reports. Writing duties will be handled by Arrow co-creator Marc Guggenheim (Carnival Row) and Ubah Mohamed (Cold), according to Deadline. ABC has also attached Emmy winner Anthony Hemingway (American Crime Story) as member of the executive producer team and series director, Deadline reports.
All eight seasons of L.A. Law are free to watch with regular ad breaks on IMDb TV via Amazon Prime Video.