Crossovers are arguably one of the most exciting aspects of network TV, andABChas taken advantage of this over the years. However, the network likely won’t jump on the perfect opportunity to connect two of its more popular police procedural TV series in its upcoming 2025–2026 season. Of course, one should never say never, but the odds are quite low.
Crossovers typically occur within franchises. For example, a9-1-1and9-1-1: Nashvillecrossoveris inevitable, while theOne Chicagouniverse’s shows have been intersecting for more than a decade. Sometimes, though,series that air on the same network can connect.Most recently, Angela Bassett appeared as her9-1-1character inDoctor Odyssey. Now, ABC should do something similar with two other shows.
Will Trent & The Rookie Return In Early 2026
The 2 Police Procedurals Should Continue Airing Back-To-Back
Will TrentandThe Rookiehave aired back-to-back on Tuesday nights for a couple of years now.They don’t take place in the same universe (yet),but ABC is clearly happy with how well they performed together in the past. To continue their success, the network is replicatingWill TrentandThe Rookie’s most recent release schedulefor the 2025–2026 season.
Reports confirm that bothWill Trentseason 4 andThe Rookieseason 8 will contain 18 episodes each, which are expected to air weekly with little to no interruptions (barring presidential addresses or other unforeseen programming interference).
ABC is holding bothcop showsfor midseason, meaning they won’t return until early 2026. SinceWill Trentseason 3 andThe Rookieseason 7 premiered in January 2025, one can assume thatseasons 4 and 8 of the respective series will follow suit and debut in January 2026.When they do, it would be wise for ABC to plan a crossover for them.
A Crossover Between Will Trent & The Rookie Would Benefit Both Shows
A Will Trent & The Rookie Crossover Certainly Wouldn’t Hurt
ConnectingWill TrentandThe Rookiefeels like a no-brainer. They perform well enough on their own, buta crossover event would surely draw more eyeballs to both TV shows(and increase their ratings, which should sound enticing to ABC’s executives). Ideally, the crossover would be a big two-episode event that features almost everycast member fromWill TrentandThe Rookie.
Given their premises, aWill TrentandThe Rookiecrossover would be easy. At least when it comes to storytelling.TheWill Trentcharacters could travel to LA, where their suspect has fled,forcing them to work alongside the LAPD (more specifically,theRookiecharacterswho work at the LAPD’s Mid-Wilshire Patrol Division). Perhaps this isn’t realistic, but these are fictional shows.
This idea might be too predictable, but theWill TrentandThe Rookiewriters could come up with something much more daring and surprising. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. Just the prospect of a collaboration betweenWill TrentandThe Rookieis exciting. They are already triumphs, but ABC could bank more on their success with a crossover.
Why Will Trent & The Rookie Likely Won’t Collaborate
There Have Been No Rumblings About A Possible Crossover
Even though ABC would surely benefit from connectingWill TrentandThe Rookie, it’s unlikely to come to fruition. For starters, there have been no rumors about such a thing happening.Both crime dramas have already started filming their respective seasons,and one would think that a crossover between the two would have been leaked by now, or at least teased.
A crossover also wouldn’t work logistically for ABC, seeing asThe Rookieis filmed in Los Angeles, whileWill Trent’s production is based out of Atlanta.The network might decide that the costs outweigh the benefits. Paying to send actors across the country to appear in a different TV show than their own does seem like it would cause a headache.
ABC was willing to briefly moveThe Rookieseason 8’s production to Prague, though. So, perhaps flying the cast and crew to Atlanta isn’t as big a deal as it’s made out to be. However, it’s still rather unlikely, especially becauseABC has probably already spent a lot of money to send the cast and crew ofThe Rookieto Europe.
After cancelingThe Rookie: Feds, ABC has a new spinoff ofThe Rookie, titledThe Rookie North, in the works. Its release date is unknown, as of the writing of this article, but it’s set to follow a character tentatively named Alex, a rookie cop in Washington state.
Another reason why fans shouldn’t be holding their breath for a collaboration betweenWill TrentandThe Rookieis the latter’s experience with crossovers. ABC could barely produce a well-executedcrossover betweenThe Rookieand its spinoff,The Rookie: Feds. So, it stands to reason that connecting it to a cop show that’s not a part of its franchise will also fail.
The most that anyone can hope for is something akin to what9-1-1andDoctor Odysseydid during the 2024–2025 network TV season.AWill Trentmain character could travel to LA for a caseand bump into Nolan, Lucy, Harper, or any of the otherRookiefigures. We’ll take anything we can get fromABCat this point.
