NBC Not Moving Forward With ‘Law & Order: For the Defense’, Orders New Spin-Off Instead
NBC is not moving forward with ‘Law & Order: For the Defense’, the spin-off drama which the network had previously handed a straight-to-series order… However, they are picking up another L&O spin-off instead.
‘Law & Order: For the Defense’ came from Emmy Award-winning producer/L&O Overlord Dick Wolf, and was going to take an unbiased look inside a criminal defence firm, putting the lawyers under the microscope, along with the criminal justice system. Whilst that series may be gone, NBC is already planning another L&O spin-off series. No details are yet known about exactly what that show will entail, other than it won’t be a legal drama.
This isn’t the first time a ‘Law & Order’ spin-off has been ditched following a series order. The same thing happened with ‘Law & Order: Hate Crimes’, which was originally ordered in 2018 but then shelved. That series may still land on NBC’s streaming service Peacock at some point in the future, but has been shoved to the bottom of the pile for now.
What is interesting with ‘For the Defense’ is how far along development had gotten before Wolf, NBC and Universal Television came to the mutual decision to ditch it. Offers had reportedly already gone out to actors to star in the show, so casting was underway. However, it seems Wolf was unhappy with the direction of the drama, which was being overseen by former ‘CSI’ showrunner Carol Mendelsohn, and that led to its ultimate demise.
Of course, for those of you who are fans of Dick Wolf dramas, there is no shortage of series to choose from. On the ‘Law & Order’ front, ‘SVU’ is still going strong, and has been joined by spin-off ‘Law & Order: Organized Crime’, which is due to launch on Sky Witness in the UK later this month. The ‘Chicago’ franchise is also still smashing it out of the park for NBC, whilst CBS has ‘FBI’ and ‘FBI: Most Wanted’, which will be joined in the Fall by ‘FBI: International’.
All the current Dick Wolf dramas air on Sky Witness in the UK. No news yet on a UK premiere for ‘FBI: International‘ yet, but we’re expecting it will land on Sky Witness at some point in the future. If you want to keep track of this or any other shows, you can add them via our Never Miss system, and you’ll be notified when they get a UK premiere date.
