Fans surely miss the sassy Jessica Pearson in the ongoing season of Suits. Played by Gina Torres, the character played a pivotal role through the six seasons. But by the end of sixth season, Pearson moved out to Chicago.
The show did not delve deep into her side of the story and continues to keep the firm as the protagonist. However, the makers of the legal drama will now focus on her character's storyline and kick off the spinoff based on Pearson from the finale episode of season 7.
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Spoiler warning: Airing early next year, the season 7 finale will see Harvey Specter, Mike Ross, Louis Litt, Donna Paulsen, Rachel Zane and old friend Pearson. The spinoff will be based on Pearson's entry into Chicago politics, reports Variety. The connection between both the shows will be drawn by Pearson taking help from Pearson Specter Litt to navigate through the new stream.
Confirming the news, Jeff Wachtel, chief content officer for NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment and president of Universal Cable Productions said: "Gina and Aaron have created a truly memorable character in Jessica Pearson, and we felt we owed it to the audience – and ourselves! – to follow her journey beyond the original show."
Adding to that, Chris McCumber, president of entertainment networks for NBC Universal Cable Entertainment said: "The powerhouse character of Jessica Pearson, expertly brought to life by the incomparable Gina Torres, has won the hearts of television fans everywhere," Variety shared.
The pilot episode will be produced and written by Suits creator Aaron Korsh and executive producer Daniel Arkin. Suits director Anton Cropper will take up the directorial duties for the show. Doug Liman, David Bartis and Gene Klein of Hypnotic will be seen as executive producers.
Deadline notes that the casting for three new characters on the spinoff show is going to begin. Since the finale episode hasn't been penned down yet, Korsh could not provide further insights into the new USA show. The crucial episode is expected to be on paper in a few days.
But he did inform Deadline that Jessica will be fighting against some Chicago political players. "They will be of different levels, from the Mayor on down, and maybe not all will be directly involved in politics, we may have a real estate developer or someone of that type, and some power brokers within the city and maybe further a little down the rung in that world. As we go though the spinoff episode, at the end hopefully you'll have a great idea of what her future is moving forward and who's a potential ally and who's a potential enemy in her world," he said.
He also added that the makers wanted to move into politics as it would form a different show from Suits. "I didn't want it to be Suits 2, I wanted it to be its own entity, and so moving it away from a glossy attorney show, I wanted it to be darker, a little more reality-based, a little grittier and to reflect what it is that we are going though in the country," Korsh explained.
Suits is currently airing the first half of season 7, every Wednesday at 9 PM on USA. The new episodes air on Friday, 8 PM, only on Comedy Central in India.
