Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Nathan Fillion is set to appear on an episode of Fox’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and it sounds like his whole character is based on a famous TV character that Fillion used to play. No, he’s not a space cowboy, he’s an actor working on a cop show—you know, like the one Fillion was on for eight years until CBS unceremoniously axed the show last May. In other words, self-referential Castle jokes are the new self-referential Firefly jokes.
The episode will revolve around a murder happening on the set of a TV show called Serve & Protect, with Fillion’s character offering to help Andy Samberg and Stephanie Beatriz solve the case by drawing on his years of experience as an actor who pretends to solve crimes. Ally McBeal’s Greg Germann will also be there playing the Dick Wolf-esque executive producer of Serve & Protect, but that seems like less of a silly meta-gag than Fillion’s character.
This particular Brooklyn Nine-Nine episode will air at some point this spring.