The rumored Blue Bloods franchise expansion is now official. Donnie Wahlberg will reprise his role as Danny Reagan in Boston Blue. As you can tell by the name, this series has a new location, and that’s not the only major change. Danny will have a brand new partner in Bean Town, and there’s no word on whether or not Marisa Ramirez‘s Detective Maria Baez will be involved at all. After the Blue Bloods series finale hinted at a possible romance between Danny and Baez after years of fan speculation, this is an unexpected development. Another unexpected detail: it could premiere as early as this year.
Here’s everything there is to know about Boston Blue so far.
What is the Blue Bloods offshoot, Boston Blue, about?
Boston Blue (working title) has a straight-to-series order, CBS announced on Tuesday, February 18 (the Blue Bloods series finale aired in December 2024). The new series is billed as a franchise expansion, not a spinoff, and is written by Brandon Sonnier and Brandon Margolis and will see NYPD Officer Danny Reagan take a new position with the Boston PD. The offshoot is keeping the family-oriented details alive with Danny’s new partner, Detective Lena Peters, who is the eldest daughter of a prominent law enforcement family. Reagan is the oldest living Reagan sibling.
When does Boston Blue premiere?
Boston Blue is set to premiere in the 2025-2026 season. Given that, it could premiere this fall or midseason in early 2026.
Who is in the Boston Blue cast?
Michael Parmelee / CBS
Wahlberg is the only confirmed star. CBS’s press release does not mention Ramirez or any other Blue Bloods actors. Casting for Lena Peters will be announced at a later time. Both of Danny’s sons, Jack (Tony Terraciano) and Sean (Andrew Terraciano), are in college and therefore wouldn’t need to be with dad in Boston, but the show’s premise and close proximity to NYC leaves room for cameos from Wahlberg’s Blue Bloods costars.
After years of fans thinking there was a romantic spark between partners Danny and Baez, Danny finally asked Baez out in the series finale. He was making good on a promise to his grandfather, Henry Reagan (Len Cariou), who wanted to see his widowed grandson find love again. Wahlberg himself advocated for this romantic ending for Danny and Baez.
“I think that was a lot of me really pushing,” Wahlberg told Variety following the series finale. “I pushed a lot for some closure with that. I went to [writer] Siobhan O’Connor, and I was like, ‘Listen, you’ve got to do something. They don’t need to go get married, but something would be nice, just to show that there may be a future for them, or that their relationship has really evolved.’”
Boston Blue is produced by CBS Studios in association with JBTV. Sonnier and Margolis will showrun and executive produce. Jerry Bruckheimer, KristieAnne Reed, and Wahlberg will also serve as executive producers.
Sonnier and Margolis hail from The Blacklist and S.W.A.T. They started in the NBC Writers on the Verge program (now NBCU LAUNCH). After five seasons on The Blacklist, they developed and showran L.A.’s Finest, the Sony and JBTV-produced Bad Boys spinoff starring Gabrielle Union and Jessica Alba, which ran for two seasons on Spectrum before subsequent successful runs on Fox and Netflix. “The Brandons” are currently executive producers on the upcoming third season of Fox’s missing persons procedural Alert: Missing Persons Unit.
