Highlights
- Maggie Q to feature as Renee Ballard in Bosch: Legacy season 3’s finale, setting up a spin-off.
- Bosch: Legacy season 3 and Ballard spin-off to have crossovers, connecting two iconic characters.
- Ballard spin-off to focus on LAPD cold cases unit in West L.A, with Maggie Q praised as a perfect fit.
Bosch: Legacy season 3 is in production, and it has been revealed that Renee Ballard will make an appearance in the show ahead of appearing in her own spin-off, which is set to go into production in July 2024. The appearance will act as a backdoor pilot for Ballard’s as yet untitled series, which will be based on Michael Connelly’s book, Desert Star, which will also be the basis for Bosch: Legacy season 3, alongside the 1992 book, The Black Ice.
Maggie Q will play Detective Renee Ballard, and she will team up with Harry Bosch to solve cold cases, with fans of the Bosch universe eagerly anticipating how these two iconic characters will be brought together in Bosch: Legacy season 3. An untitled spin-off series featuring Bosch’s ex-partner, Jerry Edgar, is also in the works at Amazon, with Jamie Hector set to reprise his role as Bosch’s former partner.
When will Renee Ballard appear in Bosch: Legacy season 3?
Fans were excited to hear confirmation that Renee Ballard will appear in Bosch: Legacy season 3 ahead of her own spin-off series which goes into production over the summer. It has also been confirmed that Maggie Q’s character will specifically turn up in the season finale of season 3, which creates a lot of speculation over what could lead her to cross paths with Harry Bosch.
The first two episodes of the untitled series starring Q as Renee Ballard will be directed by Jet Wilkinson (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Warrior Nun) and he’ll also direct the season finale of Bosch: Legacy season 3. The spin-off series is also expected to feature Harry Bosch as a recurring character, which points towards Bosch: Legacy‘s season 3 crossover leading directly into the new show.
Wilkinson will serve as executive producer on the Ballard project alongside Michael Connelly, Trish Hofmann, Michael Alaimo, and Kendall Sherwood. Henrik Bastin and Melissa Aouate executive produce for Fabel Entertainment, with Jasmine Russ serving as co-executive producer. Co-executive producers also include Jamie Boscardin Martin and Trey Batchelor, and Theresa Snider.
There are hints at what the Bosch: Legacy season 3 crossover could feature by looking at Michael Connelly’s book, Desert Star, which is the basis of aspects of the upcoming season, as well as the Ballard spin-off show. In the book, Ballard has agreed to stay with the LAPD in a new role, and she contacts Bosch to invite him to help with a new cold case division she has set up. However, the Bosch: Legacy series doesn’t follow the books to the finest detail, so this could change significantly. Having said that, it’s highly likely that Ballard will turn up to seek Bosch’s help on a case, which will then lead into the spin-off series.
The official synopsis for Bosch: Legacy season 3:
The murder investigation of Kurt Dockweiler brings dangerous secrets to light and threatens to ruin the lives of our three principal characters. The disappearance of a family haunts Harry Bosch and forces him to confront the limits of justice. In a hotly contested race, Honey “Money” Chandler is poised to become the next District Attorney of Los Angeles. And Maddie Bosch gets entangled in a series of violent follow-home robberies.
What will the Renee Ballard spin off be about?
The much anticipated Renee Ballard spin-off series will focus on the detective’s job as the head of a cold cases division in Los Angeles. The author of the books that form the basis of the new series revealed more information in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times:
Ballard is basically a West L.A. show. The Ahmanson Center, where the police cold case archive is, is all the way out by the airport. We have two shows ostensibly about L.A., but the Bosch shows have focused for 10 years on the east side of the city. There’s a north-south road called La Brea, and we cross it occasionally, but Bosch is east of La Brea, Ballard is west of La Brea. She works with the LAPD, so you’re going to see some of the LAPD people showing up.
Los Angeles is a massive canvas to cover, so it’ll be interesting to see the Renee Ballard series focus on different parts of the city, while still being ostensibly linked to Bosch: Legacy, with crossovers featuring characters from the parent show. Connelly has raved about the casting of Maggie Q as Ballard, and he elaborated on the similarities between the actor and character in the same interview with the Tampa Bay Times:
Maggie is a perfect fit to the Ballard in the books. She’s the right age, and like Ballard, Maggie Q grew up in Hawaii, and she’s of a diverse background. I don’t get into too much about Ballard’s background, as you know from all my books, but people have made comments to her in the books. Maggie comes from diverse roots, and it is a perfect fit.
Leave a Reply