Fifteen years after he broke out as intellectual slacker Nick Miller on New Girl, Jake Johnson is returning to network TV. He’ll play the lead on a new NBC sitcom that had previously been given a pilot order, and has now been ordered as a series. The new show will premiere this fall on NBC.
According to reports, Johnson will play the lead in the new half-hour single-camera sitcom Sunset P.I. According to its logline, it “continues the proud tradition of Los Angeles private eyes that began with Philip Marlowe and will end with this show.” It’s a detective-themed comedy with Johnson as Mickey, a beleaguered sleuth working for an LA detective agency. It also stars Keith David (The Thing) as Julius Royal, an old-school tough guy who runs the agency; Langston Kerman (Abbott Elementary) as Justin Royal, Julius’ lovable detective son; Jane Levy (Don’t Breathe) as Faye, a brilliant investigative journalist; and newcomer Mary Shalaby as Raya, the agency’s “flagrantly disinterested” receptionist. Johnson talked about the series with Collider‘s Perri Nemiroff last year, describing it as “a workplace comedy set in the world of P.I.s, so it’s going to be a new way of looking at the P.I. genre, but we’re going to still have great guest stars coming in.”
What Has Jake Johnson Been Up to Since the End of ‘New Girl’?
After New Girl concluded in 2018 after seven seasons and 146 episodes, Johnson starred in the ABC detective series Stumptown alongside Cobie Smulders; although it was renewed for a second season, it was a casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic. He subsequently starred in the 1970s-set comedy series Minx, and the animated Netflix comedy Hoops; both were short-lived. On the big-screen, he lent his voice to the down-on-his-luck Peter B. Parker in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and returned for its sequel Across the Spider-Verse; he is expected to return one final time in next year’s Beyond the Spider-Verse. He subsequently wrote and starred in the comedy Ride the Eagle, and made his directorial debut with the comedy thriller Self Reliance. Later this year, he’ll star in the pickleball comedy The Dink, and lend his voice to the stop-motion animated film Wildwood.
Sunset P.I. is created by Dan Goor (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) and Luke Del Tredici (Killing It), who will both executive produce the series, as well. Its pilot was directed by Akiva Schaffer (The Naked Gun).
Sunset P.I. has been ordered to series by NBC; no premiere date has yet been announced.
via Collider