Warning: This article contains mild spoilers for the Rookie season 6 finale.

Summary

• While The Rookie season 6 finale featured several characters from the cancelled Feds spinoff, Niecy Nash-Betts did not reprise her role.
• Showrunner Alexi Hawley explained that Nash-Betts is busy working on "high profile" projects.
• Hawley expressed interest in continuing to feature the Feds characters wherever possible on the show.

The showrunner of The Rookie season 7, the recent season 6 finale featured cameos from several Feds characters, though former lead character Simone Clark (Niecy Nash-Betts) was notably absent.

TV Insider recently sat down with showrunner and executive producer Alexi Hawley to discuss the Rookie season 6 finale. When discussing the Feds cameos, he shared that "I want to keep them in our world" and has hopes of including further intersections between the casts of the two shows. He explained Nash-Betts' absence by saying that her current career trajectory is "a different category" considering her recent high-profile projects, reflecting that "I don’t necessarily know that I’ll be able to get her back." Read his full quote below:

I definitely wanted to bring them in. There was a conversation with ABC after the sad cancellation of Feds about whether I could keep them in our universe. They’re phenomenal and if those actors are available—and there’s going to come a time where they’re not, they’re so good—I want to keep them in our world. Obviously Niecy [Nash-Betts] falls into a different category. She’s already off doing a bunch of high profile stuff, and I don’t necessarily know that I’ll be able to get her back. But yeah, I just wanted to see them again, and they’re so good. Luckily, they were kind enough to come play, and they loved their characters and obviously were really sad about the cancellation. I definitely knew coming into the season I couldn’t do it early. I wanted to let that sort of breathe a bit, but then it’s about what’s a story worthy of seeing them again. It’s amazing how much of showrunning is about juggling because you only own the series regulars, right? Anybody else, if Matthew Glave gets a show, if Bridget Regan gets another show, they don’t become available. So yes, there’s a lot of my job that’s about making phone calls, “Hey, I’m thinking ing them in [Episodes] 5 and 6, are they have available?” and then that could change or then dates shift. I definitely want to use them where it’s most impactful story-wise. I don’t want to waste their time and have them show up for one scene. But yeah, I’d love to use them for the rest of our life as Rookie.

Everything Niecy Nash-Betts Has Done Since The Rookie: Feds

The Reno 911! Actor Remains In Demand

Nash-Betts' absence from the Rookie season 6 finale makes sense, as the actor - who first rose to prominence as part of the cast of the comedy series Reno 911! - has had a consistent string of long-running or high-profile projects even before taking on the lead role in Feds. For instance, shortly before the spinoff premiered, her TNT dramedy Claws had ended after four seasons. Additionally, just months before Feds hit the air, she had held a major role in the Netflix serial killer drama Dahmer, for which she won an Emmy.

While Dahmer gave Nash-Betts her first Emmy win, she was nominated four previous times, twice for Getting On and once each for When They See Us and Reno 911!: The Hunt for QAnon.

Nash-Betts has continued her run of major projects since the end of The Rookie: Feds in 2023. In addition to reprising her role as Dr. Jamie Ryan in Never Have I Ever season 4 on Netflix, she also voiced Hope on the streaming service's animated spinoff Human Resources. She followed that with a role opposite Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor in Ava DuVernay's Origin and an appearance in the Meghan Trainor music video "To the Moon" as well as an major role in the FX horror show Grotesquerie, which will reunite her with Dahmer co-creator Ryan Murphy.

It remains to be seen if Nash-Betts ever has a clear enough schedule to return for a cameo in a future season of The Rookie. It is possible that the show could run for long enough that her schedule aligns properly with their production at some point and she is able to appear on an episode. However, given the amount of projects she has taken on in just a single year, it seems somewhat unlikely that she will be able to appear, even if Hawley follows through on his intention to keep folding Feds characters into the flagship show.

The Rest Of The Rookie: Feds Cast Could Follow Niecy Nash-Betts' Lead

Future The Rookie Cameos Could Be In Jeopardy

Although Nash-Betts had something of a head start, it is looking like the rest of her Feds co-stars may find it increasingly difficult to return to the Rookie cast in the coming years. Several of the main cast have already signed on for high-profile projects. Indeed, their ability to appear in the season 6 finale in the first place was likely a result of the episodes being produced in the immediate wake of the end of the Screen Actors Guild strike in 2023. Below, see a breakdown of the longest-running cast of the short-lived show:

The only of the cast who don't already have projects officially announced are Zegers and Lesure. However, everyone else has titles lined up that could lead to further projects that keep them busy and prevent them from returning. This includes Robertson, who has signed on to star opposite Chad Michael Murray in the Netflix holiday romantic comedy The Merry Gentlemen. Solis also has a Netflix project lined up. After having appeared in Jerry Seinfeld's Unfrosted earlier in 2024, he will return to the platform for a role in the season of the Noah Centineo action-comedy The Recruit.

Chad Michael Murray is fresh off a performance opposite Brooke Shields in another Netflix movie, the hit rom-com Mother of the Bride.

Faison, who is a long-established actor just like Nash-Betts and is known for classics including Coming to America and Do the Right Thing, has several projects lined up as well. These include the addiction thriller Beyond the Rush and the historical drama Killing Castro, which is also set to star Al Pacino, Alexander Ludwig, Diego Boneta, Xola Maridueña, Diego Calva, and more. Overall, with such major projects on the horizon, it remains to be seen if any other The Rookie cameos are in the cards down the line.

Source: TV Insider