We can reveal exclusively details about the premise of CBS All Access’ much anticipated The Good Wife spinoff series, which has added a fan favorite. Sarah Steele, who recurred on the mothership series, will co-star opposite Christine Baranski and Cush Jumbo in the spinoff, co-created and executive produced by The Good Wife creators Robert and Michelle King.
As previously announced, the spinoff will pick up one year after the events of the final episode of The Good Wife, with Baranski and Quinn reprising their roles as Diane Lockhart and Lucca Quinn, respectively. Here is the news – the spinoff series will center around an enormous financial scam that has destroyed the reputation of a young lawyer, while simultaneously wiping out her mentor Diane Lockhart’s savings. Forced out of Lockhart & Lee, they join Lucca Quinn at one of Chicago’s pre-eminent law firms.
Steele will reprise her role as Ari Gold’s smart and outspoken daughter Marissa Gold. In the spinoff, she is a brilliant but scattered millennial who begins as Diane Lockhart’s secretary, but finds she has a knack for investigating. The character will continue the original series’ tradition of strong and sassy female investigators, following in the footsteps of Kalinda and Robyn.
“We’re absolutely thrilled that Sarah will be joining the show,” Robert and Michelle King told Deadline. “She’s a magnificent comedian with the dramatic skill to keep every scene real.”
Steele was the first original cast member besides Baranski and Jumbo to be offered a series regular spot on the spinoff series after the project was announced in May.
The negotiations w
ere complicated by Steele’s limited availability because of her co-starring role in the Broadway hit The Humans, which won Tony for best play. The stage show was supposed to end its run on July 24 but instead it moved to another theater starting Aug. 9. It was announced earlier this week that the current run will end Jan. 15. After a couple of months of touch-and-go talks, the scheduling issues were recently resolved, paving the way for Steele to join the cast of The Good Wife offshoot. Steele is the first non-series regular from the original series to join the spinoff but she was a standout on the CBS show since her character was first introduced in the second season when Steele was still in college, quickly becoming a fan favorite. Steele is repped by Gersh and Station 3.
CBS
The 10-episode The Good Wife spinoff will premiere in February on CBS — its original network — before its episodes are released on CBS’ SVOD and live streaming platform All Access. Robert and Michelle King, who co-wrote the opening episode of the spinoff with Phil Alden Robinson, recently boarded the series as full-time showrunners/executive producers, a role they had on the original series for its entire seven-season run.
The Good Wife spinoff is executive produced by Robert and Michelle King, Ridley Scott, David Zucker, Liz Glotzer and Brooke Kennedy. CBS TV Studios is the studio.
