Morena Baccarin is making an appearance on Fire Country — and she might even get her own show out of it.
Baccarin, 44, will play a sheriff named Mickey in an episode of the CBS drama set to air later this season. According to a Deadline report published on Tuesday, January 23, Baccarin’s character could be the star of a new spinoff series if the episode is well-received.
While CBS has yet to confirm the new project, the network’s president and CEO, George Cheeks, hinted at the possibility of a Fire Country spinoff during a June 2023 interview with Deadline.
“We are focused on mass-appeal franchises. This season’s No. 1 show was Fire Country, which completely lends itself to building out a whole new universe. … It became very clear that not only was the show special, it really felt like this could be a great example of us building together a franchise from scratch,” Cheeks said, noting that he’d already heard some “great” ideas for “new extensions” of the show.
The OG series stars Max Thieriot as Bode Donovan, a convict who volunteers for the California Conservation Camp Program in order to shorten his prison sentence. Kevin Alejandro, Jordan Calloway, Stephanie Arcila, Diane Farr and Billy Burke round out the cast.
Fire Country premiered in October 2022, and the highly-anticipated second season kicks off next month. Thieriot, 35, who also cocreated the show and served as a producer and writer on season 1, has said that the show’s immediate success was a “relief” after all the work he put into it.
“I know the show is good. I know what we have. I know we have incredible actors. I know the scripts are awesome. I know the visual effects are great. We have all these things that are going for us, but you still don’t know,” he said during an interview with Collider earlier this month. “You don’t know what audience you’re gonna find or how they’re gonna respond. So, the first big thing was a big sigh of relief that was like, ‘OK, alright, we’re good.’”
Thieriot also told the outlet that he directed “the last couple” of season 2 episodes after previously directing an episode during season 1.
“When I told my wife [I was directing again], she looked at me and she said, ‘I’m going on vacation.’ I was like, ‘OK, go for it.’ She was like, ‘But you’re already so busy,’ which I know, but I’ve gotta direct one,” he said.
Thieriot has been married to Lexi Murphy since 2013. The pair welcomed sons Beaux and Maximus in 2015 and 2018, respectively.
