Netflix gasses up The Lincoln Lawyer for a third season

Times may change in the entertainment industry, actors rise and fall, trends and tech come and go. But one maxim will apparently hold true, for decades at a time: Hollywood goddamn loves a David E. Kelly legal thriller.

Hence news out of THR today, which reveals that Netflix has moved forward with a third season of Kelly’s TV adaptation of Michael Connelly’s The Lincoln Lawyer. The series, which previously aired seasons in 2022 and 2023, stars Manuel Garcia-Ruffo as Mickey Haller, a criminal attorney with an unusual superpower: Car ownership. (The character was previously played by Matthew McConaughey in the 2011 film.) The upcoming season of the TV series will apparently be based on Connelly’s fifth Lincoln Lawyer novel, The Gods Of Guilt, after the previous two were based, respectively, on The Brass Verdict and The Fifth Witness.

There’ll be at least one major change to the show’s cast, though: As THR notes, the character played by Neve Campbell, one of Mickey’s multiple ex-wives in the series, departed Los Angeles at the end of second season—and Campbell has apparently followed suit, departing the series’ cast. The rest of the show’s roster, which includes Becki Newton, Jazz Raycole, Angus Sampson, and Yaya DaCosta as Mickey’s other various accomplices and/or ex-spouses, is expected to stay on.

It’s interesting to see Netflix pushing forward with a renewal on the series, on account of the nigh-complete shutdown of Hollywood at the moment thanks to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA double-strike; the streamer presumably thinks filming on a new season of the Kelly show is far enough out that they’ll be able to resolve things with the unions before any production deadline blooms. The streamer issued a statement today, saying that, “We’re thrilled to bring back The Lincoln Lawyer for a third season. Ted Humphrey and Dailyn Rodriguez have taken us deeper into Mickey Haller’s world, building out characters and stories that have connected with our global audience, and we look forward to seeing what they have in store for everyone’s favorite lawyer.”