"The Rookie" Creator Reveals Supersized Season 9 Premiere

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"The Rookie" Creator Reveals Supersized Season 9 Premiere as Melissa O’Neil Apologizes for Shocking Season 8 Finale Cliffhanger
by Nellie Andreeva
July 25, 2026


"The Rookie" creator Alexi Hawley and the cast, led by Nathan Fillion, made a return to Comic-Con with some news about ABC series’ upcoming ninth season. It had started production this week without Fillion, who will join them on set Monday but was reunited with his colleagues during the show’s Comic-Con panel Saturday.

Hawley revealed that the Season 9 premiere will be unusual. “It’s a two-parter, so it won’t all be resolved in one episode — there’s a lot going on,” he said. “I think it’s the best of what we do, it’s incredibly high stakes, dramatic. It’s a love story, it’s funny and unexpected. I just wish everything up to wait till January to see it.”

The last part is a reference to the fact that, as it has done for the past couple of seasons, "The Rookie" once again will launch its season in January.



The long wait may be excruciating for fans who, two and a half months on, are still reeling from the jaw-dropping Season 8 finale cliffhanger in which Tim (Eric Winter) and Lucy (Melissa O’Neil) were abducted seconds after she had accepted his romantic sunset beach proposal.

Fans in the Indigo Ballroom were vocal about it when O’Neil asked how they felt about the “rollercoaster” final scene during the panel, prompting series star Nathan Fillion to step in with, “Show of hands — who had a conniption in their living room?”



After seeing the sea of hands, O’Neil felt bad about it.

“Oh no! We will send you some magnesium to calm you down, have a nice little bit of tea,” she joked, adding, “We’re so sorry for that, but also thank you for going along for the ride.”






At Comic-Con, O’Neil was asked about her reaction when she first read the beach scene in the finale script, written by Hawley.

“Honestly, when I was reading it the first time it was like, ‘I can’t believe he’s finally giving it to them, I’m in shock,'” she said. “And then the next moment I was like, ‘See? I knew he wasn’t going to give it to them.’ And also, admittedly, my heart went out to everyone who’s deeply invested because I was like, ‘This is gonna be hard.’ So thank you for being so invested. But I went on the rollercoaster with you guys. It was great.”

As for filming the scene, she said, “It was very rushed to shoot that day, though, it was very unceremonious. We were chasing the light.”



Added Winter, “Yeah, we timed it to the sunset. It was interesting, the whole thing was kind of moving quick. We had to knock it out. But I think seeing that script was surprising, and it made me laugh. Kind of like, ha-ha, really bad. It was great.”

https://deadline.com/2026/07/the-roo...er-1237003758/