David Boreanaz is coming back to television for the first time since 2024. It’s been a notable absence considering that Boreanaz has been one of TV’s most prominent leading men since the 2000s, where he got his big breakout role playing the vampire, Angel, in Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series. Boreanaz was so good in the show that Whedon gave him his own leading role in the Angel spinoff series. That run (1999-2004) set Boreanaz up for his next role in the hit procedural series Bones, which dominated TV culture for nearly a decade (2005 – 2017). Just when fans thought Boreanaz might quit for a bit, the ending of Bones led right into his lead role in the military action-drama series SEAL Team, which ran from 2017 – 2024.
Now, after his longest break in more than a quarter-century of TV work, David Boreanaz is back, and his new series is taking things back to the 1970s and 1980s era of television, with a modern remake of a cult-classic. And you can get the first look at it, below!
David Boreanaz will be starring in NBC’s reboot of The Rockford Files, taking over the role of “James Scott ‘Jim’ Rockford,” which was first made famous by actor James Garner. Garner starred in the original Rockford Files from 1974-1980; the series followed a detective who had been wrongfully convicted of a crime and was locked in prison. Once pardoned, he starts his career as a private eye, struggling to make ends meet and living in a broken-down mobile home.
An antithesis to the stereotypical Noir detective types, Rockford tries to avoid fights, injuries, or anything too costly to his broke budget, or that could land him in trouble with the law again. Still, he’s a sharp if unlikely investigator, with signatures like the scenic California beach/pier locations where he parked his trailer, or his Colt Detective Special revolver, which Rockford famously kept hidden in his cookie jar.
No doubt NBC and David Boreanaz will be putting their own spin on Jim Rockford, but the first photos indicate that his budgeted style of living will not carry over to the reboot.
According to the show’s logline: “Newly paroled after doing time for a crime he didn’t commit, James Rockford (Boreanaz) returns to his life as a private investigator using his charm and wit to solve cases around Los Angeles. It doesn’t take long for his quest for legitimacy to land him squarely in the crosshairs of both local police and organized crime.”
A key distinction in that logline is that Boreanaz’s Rockford will be on parole, and not fully pardoned. That makes the premise of the detective being under the shadow of a crime he didn’t commit much richer with story potential. We already know there are possible storylines will Rockford has to go back to jail, or, at the very least, must conduct himself in a way that doesn’t violate his parole while solving caes.
The Rockford Files also stars Michaela McManus, Felix Solis and Jacki Weaver. The pilot was written by Mike Daniels and directed by Greg Mottola. Daniels and Mottola also serve as executive producers along with Carl Beverly, Sarah Timberman, and Chris Leanza.
The Rockford Files is currently slate to be a midseason release, likely in early 2027. Disucss all things TV with us on the ComicBook Forum!
Via: Variety
