#L.A. Law Sequel Featuring Blair Underwood Eyed at ABC

ABC is looking to the past for its latest series.

Deadline is reporting that Blair Underwood has been locked in to reprise his Jonathan Rollins role for a sequel series of hit legal drama L.A. Law.

The sequel will be set at the McKenzie Brackman law firm, which now specializes in “only the most high profile, boundary pushing and incendiary cases.”

Deadline reports that Underwood’s character has become more conservative over the years, meaning that viewers can expect plenty of drama between Jonathan and a millennial named JJ Freeman.

At the moment, Underwood is the only returning star announced, but Deadline notes that more big names will probably be snapped up should ABC hand out a formal series order.

The series, which spanned eight seasons from 1986-94, had an expansive cast that also included the likes of Corbin Bernsen, Jimmy Smits, and Harry Hamlin.

Underwood will have a creative voice in the update, serving as executive-producer alongside writers Marc Guggenheim and Ubah Mohamed, as well as director Anthony Hemingway.

The family of the late Steve Bochco, who co-created the original series, will be a part of the process through Steven Bochco Productions.

This is not the first time the series has eyed a comeback. A broadcast reboot was well into the development phase, but never landed a formal series order.

Instead, it was put on the backburner, with an eye of it later materializing for cable or streaming, well away from the broadcast networks.

Still, people will probably be way more interested in a continuation, as opposed to forgetting the past and popping up with a whole new crop of cast members.

TV continuations tend to have a better track record than outright reboots, but only time will tell if ABC pulls the trigger on a full series pickup.

Given the erosion in broadcast ratings, networks are looking to revive and reboot once-hot series now more than ever.

It’s expected that these shows will have a built-in audience that will, at the very least, check out the series opener.

This has been the case with the myriad of reboots and revivals, which typically start strong and tail off when the curiosity factor wears off.

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Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.