Netflix may already be looking beyond the upcoming final season of ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’, as a spin-off centred around Cobie Smulders’ new character is reportedly moving quickly through development. And there is an interesting rights-related reason why her character exists in the first place.
According to Deadline, Cobie Smulders (How I Met Your Mother, Shrinking) is being lined up to lead the potential series as Artemisia “Emi” Finch, Mickey Haller’s previously unknown half-sister. The project is currently in fast-track development, with The Lincoln Lawyer executive producers Ted Humphrey, Dailyn Rodriguez and Matthew J. Lieberman writing the script for A+E Studios. Netflix has not officially commented on the report.
Emi first appeared at the end of Season 4 and has been promoted to a series regular for the fifth and final season. Her arrival rather dramatically expands Mickey’s family tree, as she comes to her newfound brother with a plea to help free a woman she believes has been wrongfully convicted. Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (6 Underground, A Man Called Otto) returns as Mickey Haller.
However, there is a rather large Bosch-shaped elephant sitting in Mickey’s Lincoln.
Fans of Michael Connelly’s novels will know Mickey already has a famous half-sibling: Harry Bosch. Unfortunately for Netflix, Harry is otherwise occupied. The television rights to Bosch reside with Amazon, which has spent more than a decade building its own universe around the detective through ‘Bosch’, ‘Bosch: Legacy’ and ‘Ballard’, with the prequel ‘Bosch: Start of Watch’ also on the way. So the Amazon side of Connelly’s universe is very much still alive.
Emi, meanwhile, does not exist in Connelly’s books. Deadline describes her as an original character who fills the hole in Mickey’s family dynamic left by Netflix being unable to use Bosch.
That makes the proposed spin-off particularly interesting, because Emi cannot simply inherit Harry Bosch’s stories. The Amazon adaptations have already spent years mining Connelly’s Bosch novels, while the rights situation prevents Netflix from simply bringing Mickey’s famous half-brother across town whenever it fancies a crossover.
So what exactly does an Emi Finch series look like?
That may depend heavily on what ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ Season 5 establishes about her. The Netflix drama and Amazon’s ‘Bosch’ universe occupy the same fictional Los Angeles on the page, but the television versions have developed very different personalities. ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ is a slicker, brighter legal drama built around Mickey’s courtroom manoeuvring and unconventional law practice. ‘Bosch’ is a darker, slower-burning police noir.
If Emi is effectively filling the narrative space which Bosch occupies in Mickey’s literary family, it does not necessarily follow that Netflix will turn her into its own version of Harry. In fact, with the character created specifically for television, Humphrey, Rodriguez and Lieberman have something they rarely get when adapting Connelly: a largely blank page.
That could allow the spin-off to remain firmly within the tone of ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’, or potentially use Emi to explore a completely different corner of Los Angeles. Much will presumably depend on exactly who she turns out to be when Season 5 arrives.
The project is still some distance from becoming a series. Deadline reports that Netflix bought the pitch and commissioned a script with a quick turnaround, although a green light is believed to depend on deals being completed with the key people involved. If it does move forward, the intention is reportedly to film in Los Angeles, assuming the production qualifies for California’s tax credit programme.
With ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ ending after five seasons, it certainly makes sense that Netflix would want to keep a successful franchise on the road. The more intriguing question is whether Emi Finch becomes an extension of Mickey Haller’s world, or Netflix’s entirely original answer to the Bosch it cannot have.
The untitled ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ spin-off is currently in fast-track development at Netflix, with no premiere date announced.
‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ Season 5 is expected to premiere in early to mid-2027. If I want to keep track of this or any other shows, I can add them via our Never Miss system, and I’ll be notified when it gets a UK premiere date. Visit Never Miss.
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