Matthew Wilson
Donnie Wahlberg is back as Danny Reagan despite Blue Bloods being canceled last year. The actor is starring in the new spin-off, Boston Blue.
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Few fans would be angry at Wahlberg for wanting to hang the shield up. The actor starred as Reagan for an impressive 14-season run on Blue Bloods. So why did he decide to follow the path of Frasier Crane and star in his own spinoff?
The Basis For The Spinoff: During a Q&A for the premiere, via People, Wahlberg opened up about the spin-off. He said Boston Blue was a result of two Blue Bloods spin-offs being smashed together. One involved Reagan moving to Texas. Another involved a new family in Boston.
- “I think they were like, ‘Hey, instead of moving to Texas, why don’t we talk about him joining this thing and moving to Boston?’” Wahlberg said, “But I really didn’t think that would ever happen anytime soon. I was just chugging along in Blue Bloods.”
Donnie Wahlberg Talks ‘Blue Bloods’ Spinoff
Why The Actor Came Back: But the network ultimately canceled the parent show. Initially, Wahlberg confessed that he didn’t know if he wanted to reprise his role in a spin-off. It took the script to suddenly convince him to go with it.
“Suddenly it was like, ‘Do I really wanna do a spinoff?’ I didn’t know. And this idea was really good. And the script was really good,” he shared. “I looked at it and I saw the possibilities of weaving the ‘Blue Bloods’ world into it, and I saw a chance to play Danny in a different way.”
The thing that pushed him over the edge was realizing his onscreen son would be a police officer in the spin-off. This opened a new dynamic for the actor.
- “That suddenly changed everything,” he explained. “Now there’s a whole new world.”
- “It’s not only Danny with a new partner, meeting this new family,” Wahlberg continued. “It’s Danny being a dad and worrying about his son, making sure he gets home safe every day and teaching him the job, the way that his family taught him the job.”
Boston Blue will premiere on October 17.
