Why should Dick Wolf get to have all the fun? NBC, hot on the heels of ordering its umpteenth Chicago series, has committed to a spinoff of its popular crime-procedural drama The Blacklist, titled The Blacklist: Redemption.
After airing a backdoor pilot for the spinoff this past Thursday, the Peacock network has made its allegiance to another installment of the franchise official, signing a deal for a first season of Redemption that will air this fall. Famke Janssen, Ryan Eggold, Edi Gathegi and Tawny Cypress are all aboard reprising their Blacklist roles as the core cast of the spinoff.
Jon Bokenkamp and John Eisendrath are set to serve as writers and executive producers on the series, with John Fox and John Davis involved as executive producers. Michael Dinner, who did great work behind the camera on FX’s Justified, will direct the first episode.
Here’s how the new show is being described:
In this thrilling new spinoff of NBC’s breakout hit series, undercover operative Tom Keen joins forces with Susan “Scottie” Hargrave (Famke Janssen), the brilliant and cunning chief of Grey Matters, a covert mercenary organization that solves problems governments don’t dare touch. While on the hunt for Liz’s attacker, Tom secretly discovered that Scottie is actually his biological mother. Now, as they team up to employ their unique skills and resources in a dangerous world of deadly criminals, Tom begins his own covert mission to find out more about his shadowy past.
After an explosive Blacklist finale that ended in the apparent death of a major player, all eyes are on the flagship series, but it will be interesting to see how Redemption sets itself apart (or doesn’t, given that the dynamic between Keen and Hargrave is being set up to closely mirror that of James Spader’s Red Reddington and Megan Boone’s Elizabeth Keen on the main show) from its predecessor.
The Blacklist: Redemption airs on NBC this fall.