Donnie Wahlberg will keep Blue Bloods’ legacy alive in Boston Blue, a forthcoming spinoff of the popular CBS police procedural, which ended its 14-season run in December 2024.
CBS announced the spinoff this week, revealing that Wahlberg would once again slip into the uniform of Danny Reagan, an NYPD detective unafraid to bend the rules in the name of justice. The twist? He’ll be relocating from New York City to Boston, far from his family of law enforcement veterans, which includes Tom Selleck’s Frank Reagan and Bridget Moynahan’s Erin Reagan.
Executive produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, KristieAnne Reed, and Wahlberg, the spinoff’s showrunners will be Brandon Sonnier and Brandon Margolis, who previously worked on The Blacklist and L.A.’s Finest.
The Blue Bloods spinoff follows Wahlberg’s hotheaded detective Danny Reagan, the oldest living son of NYPD Commissioner Frank Reagan (Selleck). Though he spent the majority of his life living in (and policing) the Big Apple, the new series will transport him to Boston.
It’s also possible that the spinoff will have a romantic component. It was revealed in the Blue Bloods season 8 premiere that Danny’s wife had died offscreen in a helicopter crash, and by the series finale, he appeared ready to find someone new. After making a promise to his grandfather, Henry (Len Cariou), that he’d try and settle down, he asked his partner, Maria Baez (Marisa Ramirez), out for pizza. Perhaps she’ll follow him to Boston? Or maybe he’ll still be looking for love in Beantown.
“I would say I would have Danny Reagan walk right into his next chapter of his life, maybe in a different place doing a similar job and perhaps with someone from the current cast,” he said. “But I want him to not be too far from the family so that he could still see them and spend time with them, but maybe to see what life has in store for him now that his boys have gone off and he’s empty nesting and his wife’s gone. Maybe he can see what the future holds for him on his own. As long as he can visit the family sometimes.
As of this writing, Wahlberg’s Danny Reagan is the only member of the Blue Bloods cast slated to return for Boston Blue. That, of course, doesn’t mean he’ll be riding solo.
The press release for Boston Blue, for example, calls the show a “universe expansion” of Blue Bloods, which indicates an openness to include characters from the original show. And, as Selleck made abundantly clear ahead of the Blue Bloods finale, the cast wasn’t prepared for the show to end.
“We’re the third-highest scripted show in all of broadcast. We’re winning the night. All the cast wants to come back,” he said last year, expressing his frustration with the show’s cancellation. “And I can tell you this: We aren’t sliding off down a cliff. We’re doing good shows, and still holding our place. So, I don’t know.”
He wasn’t alone, either. Wahlberg and costar Bridget Moynahan admitted to feeling “upset and sad” about the series’ conclusion. “We’ve created such a family on set with each other and the crew,” said Moynahan. “Most of the crew’s been with us for 14 years, so we’ve been through a lot of weddings, births, deaths, and everything. We’ve been through it all with each other.”
The Blue Bloods series finale ended like many of its episodes, with the Reagan family gathered around the family dinner table. It was a hopeful, if bittersweet, conclusion, setting the stage for promising futures for the lead characters.
Getting there, though, requires a bit of bloodshed. Two gangs are working together to get amnesty for incarcerated members, threatening violence until their demands are met. This results in the deaths of both a judge and Luis Badillo (Ian Quinlan), the partner of Jamie’s wife, Eddie (Vanessa Ray). Frank is given the “keys to the city” by the wounded mayor to put a stop to the violence, which he eventually does with the help of Danny, Maria, Jamie, Eddie, and an inmate played by Edward James Olmos.
In happier news, Eddie reveals she’s pregnant and Erin proposes that she and her ex, Jack (Peter Herrman), give their marriage another shot. Danny, meanwhile, takes the first steps towards finding a new partner (a romantic one).
The episode ends with Frank celebrating his family. “You know, we’ve got a lot to be thankful for,” he says. “And looking around at this table, I gotta say, I couldn’t be more proud or grateful.”
