The Fire Country Bombshell Sharon *Never* Saw Coming
There’s a new sheriff in town, and she could be trouble for Sharon and the rest of the Leone family on Fire Country. So who is Mickey Fox on Fire Country? Well, don’t count her out because the mysterious cop is about to become a lot more important.
Fire Country is CBS’ drama series centered around Bode Leone (also known as Bode Donovan), a young convict with a troubled past, who volunteers for the California Conservation Camp Program, in which prisoners assist with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known as Cal Fire. Bode is assigned to his hometown of Edgewater in Northern California, where’s tasked with working alongside his former friends and other inmates as they fight wild fires that plague the region.
Since its premiere in 2022, Fire Country has become of CBS’ most-watched drama series with an average of 10 million viewers for its first season. Fire Country was so popular that news broke in November 2023 that at least two spin-offs were in the works by CBS — one of which will be centered around a Edge’s female sheriff, who viewers now know as Mickey Fox. So who is Mickey Fox on Fire Country? Keep reading to find out.
Who’s Mickey Fox on Fire Country?
Who’s Mickey Fox on Fire Country? Mickey is Edgewater, California’s Sheriff’s Deputy and has been working in the town for the past 15 years. She was introduced in Season 2, Episode 6, “Alert the Sheriff,” where she’s called to investigate the escape of three fire camp inmates from Three Rock Con Camp, a conservation camp for prisoners instated in the Cal Fire Program.
Mickey’s storyline also involves her “surprising connection” to the Leone family, which consists of Bode Leone, his father Vince Leone, and his mother Sharon Leone. Viewers learn in her first episode that Mickey is Sharon’s estranged sister, whom she shares a dark history with that the two have to reconcile. “You called Vince but you got me,” Sharon says after surprises Mickey at the sheriff’s station. “I brought the money that the inmates collected.” Mickey then introduces her sister to Lieutenant Andy Kubiak, who asks, “Is it true your dad was really a drug dealer?”
Sharon and Mickey then explain that Mickey’s father isn’t Sharon’s father. “He’s new here. He doesn’t know our whole sordid story,” Mickey says. Diane Farr, who plays Sharon, told TV Insider in March 2024 of what it was like to film with Baccarin. “I had such an amazing time working with her because she’s a peer,” Farr said. “Just to have another woman there who is like a peer, I think it’s great. It’s a male-dominated field, firefighting, and it’s one of the best representations I’ve seen of different races and different women and different sexual orientations in the house, but [Sharon] doesn’t have peers, so we can only hope there’ll be a lot more Morena.”
News broke in December 2023 that CBS was planning a Fire Country spin-off centered around a female sheriff. Morena Baccarin, who has starred in shows like Homeland and Gotham, was cast as Mickey in January 2024. While the Fire Country spin-off — which could be titled Sheriff Country, according to TV Line — hasn’t been confirmed, the site reports that the option is a strong possibility if viewers respond positively Mickey’s guest role.
Baccarin, for her part, celebrated her role on Fire Country with a post on her Instagram Story before Mickey’s first episode. “This is my serious sheriff face,” Baccarin captioned a photo of Mickey with other police officers. She continued, “Don’t miss it!”
CBS Chief Executive Officer George Cheeks first teased that multiple Fire Country spinoffs were in the works in an interview with Deadline in November 2023. “We are focused on mass-appeal franchises,” Cheeks said. “We started with expanding universes, reimagining, but also creating new franchises. And again, this season’s number one show was Fire Country, which completely lends itself to building out a whole new universe. So it is really important for us to double down on a franchise focus.”
He continued, “It became very clear that not only was the show special, it really felt like this could be a great example of us building together a franchise from scratch. And so I’m like, ‘you guys, congratulations, you got your back nine. Now let’s start talking about ideas for new extensions.’ They’ve already come up with some great ones … We’re not necessarily looking at next year. We’re looking when they’re ready. That’s the beauty of the gestation process. We know that we’re doubling down on this one, so let’s get it right. And whether that that means three years down the road or whether that means a Paramount Plus original or a CBS original, we’ll see where it lands.”
Cheeks also explained why CBS is releasing so many spinoffs and rebooting so many series. Among the series premiering in 2024 are The Good Wife spinoff, Elsbeth, and a reboot of Matlock starring Kathy Bates. “It actually makes it a lot harder because you can’t just, take a title and say, ‘hey, I’m gonna recast it and put ’em out there,’” Cheeks said, denying the claim that “dusting off old IP makes our jobs easier.” “Discerning fans of those … have a real clear sensibility of what they want those shows to be. So I think it’s actually more challenging to figure out how you reimagine for today. How do you make it exciting? What pieces of it do you leave in, what pieces of it do you let go? It’s a very tricky development process.”
