John Nolan and Mid-Wilshire are back on set for The Rookie season 9 today.
The end of the 2025-2026 TV cycle was dominated by so many twists and character deaths that the next season will look very different for some scripted shows. For Alexi Hawley’s procedural, The Rookie season 8’s biggest death happened during its penultimate outing, when Monica Stevens finally met her end. Its final hour of the cycle, meanwhile, was dedicated to setting up a brand new adversary for Mid-Wilshire, while also moving some personal stories forward, particularly Lucy Chen and Tim Bradford, as well as Miles Penn.
While it hasn’t run nearly as long as other legacy procedurals, such as CBS’s NCIS and NBC’s Law & Order: SVU, the ABC series is already regarded as a classic in the genre. The Rookie season 9 is expected to continue its tradition of combining creative cases with interesting personal arcs for the perfect mix of a comforting weekly watch. Following a lengthy summer break for the cast and crew, pertinent details about what comes next for Mid-Wilshire have already been revealed.
Speaking to TVLine, in light of the release of an extended episode on Hulu, Hawley revealed that The Rookie season 9 is set to officially start filming today, July 21, 2026. Additionally, he also shared that the premiere for the upcoming cycle will be “super fun and romantic and emotional [with] a lot of action.” In a separate interview with TVInsider, Hawley confirmed that The Rookie season 9 will pick up “within a couple of weeks ultimately, maybe a little in between a week and two weeks.”
For context, The Rookie season 8 ended with Tim and Lucy getting engaged, but before they could properly celebrate, they were abducted. No one from Mid-Wilshire knew what happened to them, so it’s interesting to see how they find out about the incident. Elsewhere, Penn was set to officially graduate — something that has already been confirmed for The Rookie season 9. It doesn’t seem like the procedural is doing his graduation on-screen, which is a bummer.
Considering where things left off for The Rookie, it’s interesting that Hawley will do a two-week time-jump from when Tim and Lucy were abducted. Now, it’s curious if it means that they won’t be rescued throughout that time or if the series will be telling what happened to them during captivity via flashbacks. Whatever the case may be, the fact that The Rookie season 9 premiere is confirmed to be romantic suggests that it will heavily focus on the couple.
Unfortunately, fans would have to wait until 2027 to see what Hawley and his team have decided for The Rookie season 9. ABC’s fall 2026 schedule doesn’t have it in its lineup, as the network pushes it to midseason, alongside a few other shows. However, with filming already ongoing, expect fun content from the set thanks to the cast members, who have always been engaged with the fandom.
The Rookie
6/10
- Release Date
-
October 16, 2018
- Showrunner
-
Alexi Hawley
- Directors
-
Tori Garrett, Chi-Yoon Chung, Michael Goi, Sylvain White, Lisa Demaine, Lanre Olabisi, Bill Johnson, David McWhirter, Liz Friedlander, Daniel Willis, Toa Fraser, Anne Renton, Jon Huertas, Cherie Nowlan, TK Shom, Rob Seidenglanz, Valerie Weiss, Barbara Brown, Charissa Sanjarernsuithikul, SJ Main Muñoz, Nelson McCormick, Marcus Stokes, Adam Davidson, Anna Mastro