Is Jenna Dewan Leaving ‘The Rookie’? Read What the Showrunner Said About Bailey Nune’s Future
The actress is about to give birth to her third child, while filming for season 7 is ready to begin.
Ever since Jenna Dewan debuted on The Rookie in season 3, fans of the ABC drama have been captivated by her character’s trajectory.
Introduced on the show as firefighter Lt. Bailey Nune, Jenna’s character quickly became the love interest for John Nolan (Nathan Fillion). Into the fourth season, we saw Jenna become a series regular. And by season 6, Bailey and John got married, and now the couple is now thinking about growing their family.
As art sometimes imitates life, Jenna is also expanding her family. The actress is currently pregnant with her third child (she shares daughter Everly with ex-husband Channing Tatum and son Callum with fiancé Steve Kazee).
Of course, fans are absolutely thrilled for her, but many are wondering if Jenna will return for season 7. Especially after learning that season 7 will begin filming this month, per showrunner Alexi Hawley, who confirmed this to TVLine.
Is Jenna Dewan leaving The Rookie?
Jenna will be back!
While it’s hard to tell for sure what the future holds, she is set to be a cast member for The Rookie season 7. That said, when Alexi spoke to TVLine in May about if Bailey will appear in the upcoming installment, he said fans will have to wait a little while before Mrs. Nolan — and her present storyline involving the return of her abusive ex-husband Jason Wyler (played by her real-life partner, Steve) — re-appears onscreen.
“As you know, Jenna [Dewan]’s about to have a baby in real life, so we probably won’t see [Bailey] for the first few episodes because of that,” Alexi told the outlet. “As a result, we aren’t sure when we’ll see Jason. But yes, I think we’re looking at how we can spread stuff out so we’re not just all diving into all of it at the beginning.”
Fans will remember that at the end of season 6, Bailey and John were discussing adoption after learning about the couple’s infertility issues. Alexi did tease to the publication that the couple’s journey to parenthood will be a part of season 7, but it will take time for the story to build.
“I think we’ll get into the real of it a bit,” Alexi said. “I wanted to get into the fact that, when Bailey felt like a door had closed, that they hadn’t all closed.” Although he did admit that he “can’t really say yet where it’s all going,” he felt the topic of adoption was an important one to explore.
As we wait to find out more, we wish Jenna all the best, and can’t wait to see baby number 3!
