Good news, bad news, TV fans!
The Good Wife spin-off is coming sooner than we thought, and will be launching on CBS All Access in February 2017. The first episode of the series, which starts Christine Baranski as Diane Lockhart and Cush Jumbo as Lucca Quinn, will premiere its first episode on CBS before moving exclusively to the network's streaming site, CBS All Access.
Originally, the spin-off was set to debut in May, which is now when Star Trek: Discovery will launch in an effort to give creative team Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman more time for production. Star Trek will also air its premiere on the CBS broadcast network before moving to All Access.
While needing more time for creative reasons can be an indicator that something might not be great, that does not sound like the case with this project.
"Bringing Star Trek back to television carries a responsibility and mission: to connect fans and newcomers alike to the series that has fed our imaginations since childhood," Kurtzman and Fuller said in a statement. "We aim to dream big and deliver, and that means making sure the demands of physical and post-production for a show that takes place entirely in space, and the need to meet an air date, don't result in compromised quality. Before heading into production, we evaluated these realities and our partners at CBS and they agreed: Star Trek deserves the very best, and these extra few months will help us achieve a vision we can all be proud of."
"The series template and episodic scripts that Alex and Bryan have delivered are incredibly vivid and compelling," said CBS President David Stapf in a statement. "They are building a new, very ambitious Star Trek world for television, and everyone involved supports their vision for the best timing to bring to life what we all love on the page."
The Good Wife spin-off, which picks up a year after the events of The Good Wife's series finale, comes from Robert and Michelle King, who gave us the original series that wrapped earlier this year. They return as showrunners and executive producers, along with Phil Alden Robinson, who co-wrote and will executive produce the premiere episode.
Baranski and Jumbo will star, along with new characters we have yet to meet. Both Jess Weixler and Carrie Preston have expressed interest in appearing in the spin-off, and even Archie Panjabi has said that a return of Kalinda might not be totally out of the question.
"I don't know, to tell you the truth," she told reporters during this summer's TCA press tour. "Like I said, when I unzipped the boots, I knew it was the right time, so I don't know. I'd have to sit and think about that."