Suits LA spin-off gets significant production update

‘Suits: LA’ has landed a pilot order

NBCUniversal has ordered a pilot of the proposed Suits spin-off, Suits: LA.

Production is expected to begin in late March in Vancouver.

Suits starred Patrick J Adams as an attorney who lands a job at a prestigious New York legal firm despite never attending law school. It has smashed streaming records since returning to Netflix last year.

The show, which also starred Meghan Markle, originally premiered on USA Network between 2011 and 2019, and aired on Dave in the UK.

Variety reports that Suits: LA will follow Ted Black, a former federal prosecutor from New York who reinvents himself by representing the most powerful clients in Los Angeles.

The logline reads: “His firm is at a crisis point, and in order to survive he must embrace a role he held in contempt his entire career. Ted is surrounded by a stellar group of characters who test their loyalties to both Ted and each other while they can’t help but mix their personal and professional lives.

“All of this is going on while events from years ago slowly unravel that led Ted to leave behind everything and everyone he loved.”

Meghan Markle and Patrick J Adams in ‘Suits’ (USA)

Suits also followed the lives of famous litigator Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht), Mike’s boss, and paralegal-turned-lawyer Rachel Zane (Markle), Mike’s love interest.

The now-Duchess of Sussex played attorney Rachel in seven seasons before exiting in 2018 ahead of her royal wedding to Prince Harry. She became romantically involved with the prince in 2016.

Many of her Suits costars attended the wedding at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.

Adams previously defended Markle from online hate after she and Prince Harry stepped down from their roles as senior working royals in 2020. “Hello to the people and many bots debating all things Meghan and including me in the conversation. I just want you to know a couple of things,” he tweeted in January 2022.

He also defended Markle against allegations of bullying, after Buckingham Palace said in March 2021 it would be launching a probe into claims made against the duchess by former members of staff.

“Meghan Markle and I spent the better part of a decade working together on Suits. From day one she was an enthusiastic, kind, cooperative, giving, joyful and supportive member of our television family. She remained that person and colleague as fame, prestige and power accrued,” he wrote on Twitter at the time.

In an interview with the LA Times, Suits creator Aaron Korsch credited the show’s renewed success in part to Markle’s role in the royal family.

“[The show] has an inherent optimism to it, and I think that’s a real part of what people respond to,” Korsh said.

In another interview, he recalled a line that the royal family asked to be cut.