Chicago P.D. executive producer and FBI: International co-creator Derek Haas has a new crime-fighting team.
Haas’ new action series Countdown (premiering Wednesday, June 25 on Prime Video) follows a special task force — headed by steely Special Agent in Charge Nathan Blythe (played by Grey’s Anatomy vet Eric Dane) — that must stop a dangerous threat from destroying Los Angeles. Blythe’s team of recruits includes skilled law enforcement officials who are also outsiders amongst their peers: LAPD detective Mark Meachum (Supernatural‘s Jensen Ackles), DEA agent Amber Oliveras (All Rise‘s Jessica Camacho), LAPD gangs and narcotics officer Lucas Finau (Young Rock‘s Uli Latukefu), FBI agent/tech expert Evan Shepherd (The Flash‘s Violett Beane), FBI agent Keyonte Bell (The Boys‘ Elliot Knight) and Department of Homeland Security officer Damon Drew (The Chosen‘s Jonathan Togo).
The seed for Countdown was planted during Haas’ time as an executive producer/writer on Chicago P.D., which he helped develop after co-creating the mothership series Chicago Fire. When Haas needed to find a heroic, non-deadly way to write out a character on P.D., a technical adviser for the NBC drama suggested a government task force. So naturally, Haas says he can “100 percent” imagine a character from the Windy City occupying the same world as Countdown and joining the show’s elite team.
“I would take [Jay] Halstead in a heartbeat. Love, love my Jesse [Lee] Soffer. Got to give a shoutout to him,” Haas tells Soaps. “He also went and did FBI: International [which was cancelled in March]. So who knows, maybe he’ll end up on this task force at some point.”
While Halstead isn’t showing up on Countdown just yet, Haas believes that fans of the One Chicago franchise will find plenty of familiar elements to love in the propulsive drama beyond the stunts. Like with Fire and its spinoffs, the heart of Countdown is in its misfit family of officers and agents who have been brought together for a bigger cause.
“I think what makes shows compelling and invites the viewer to come back over and over and over again is the characters,” Haas says. “You can have all of the plot and all of the suspense and big action sequences and grand scale, which I think we have in spades on this show, but you’re not going to continue to come back unless you’ve fallen in love with these characters and these relationships and these will they/won’t theys, and all of those things. So I think people who have watched my shows in the past know that, to me, it’s more than just what’s happening action-wise. It’s also about heart and found family and those kind of things that make for compelling television.”
There is, however, one thing about Countdown that Chicago viewers will not find familiar: “What they’re going to be surprised at — or at least my mom was surprised at — is the cuss words that these characters are saying,” Haas shares with a laugh.
