Donnie Wahlberg is expanding the “Blue Bloods” universe, but he’s moving TV detective jobs from New York City to his Boston hometown.
Wahlberg, who played New York Police Department detective Danny Reagan on “Blue Bloods” for 14 seasons, will star in the new drama series “Boston Blue,” CBS announced.
Wahlberg, 55, will reprise his role while taking a position with the Boston Police Department, where he will be paired with Det. Lena Peters, the eldest daughter of a prominent law enforcement family, according to CBS. No casting information on Peters was disclosed by CBS, which said the first “Blue Bloods” spinoff series will arrive next season.
Wahlberg will be an executive producer on the series, along with Brandon Sonnie, Brandon Margolis, Jerry Bruckheimer and Kristie Anne Reed.
The beloved CBS police procedural ended in December after 288 episodes, with Danny Reagan at the traditional Sunday family meal his father, Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck), the New York City police commissioner, at the head of the table. Earlier in the series finale, widower Danny asked his detective partner, Maria Baez (Marisa Ramirez), out for a pizza date. Baez is not mentioned as a character making the move in “Boston Blue.”
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New Kids On The Block founding member Wahlberg grew up in the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester with his brother, actor Mark Wahlberg. He has been married to Jenny McCarthy since 2014.
To celebrate the return, Wahlberg posted an Instagram Stories photo of Reagan with the appropriate NKOTB tune “Back To Life.”
‘Stay grateful,” Wahlberg wrote on the photo. “Somehow, someway and for some reason — there is a blessing & a lesson in everything that happens. Trust.”
