The Rookie Season 6 Ending Cameos & Why Niecy Nash-Betts Didn't Return Explained By Showrunner

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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 has explained the absence of one notable Feds character in their recent season finale. Feds was a spinoff of the flagship show following the oldest rookie to ever join the FBI Academy and featuring a cast that included Niecy Nash-Betts, Frankie Faison, James Lesure, Britt Robertson, Felix Solis, and Kevin Zegers. The spinoff show only ran for one season before being cancelled by ABC. Ahead of the already renewed 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 about using 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.

More to come...

Source: TV Insider