David Boreanaz’s Upcoming Detective Drama Reboot Sets Up A New Franchise

Jul 21, 2026 - 04:08

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David Boreanaz’s Upcoming Detective Drama Reboot Sets Up A New Franchise

Published Jul 20, 2026, 7:28 PM EDT

Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.

While it is exciting to see David Boreanaz return to the small screen with a reboot of NBC’s classic cop show The Rockford Files, it is surprising to see just how big the original version of this franchise was in the ‘70s. Well, 2026 is proving to be a mixed year for fans of the iconic police procedural Bones. Series star Emily Deschanel was set to play criminal profiler Professor Georgia Ryan in the NBC series Key Witness, setting up what sounded like an ideal Bones replacement.

However, NBC didn’t pick up Key Witness for a series order, making this the second potential Bones replacement that fell through since the start of 2026. Earlier, Prime Video’s Scarpetta sounded like an ideal substitute for the 12-season procedural, since the show also focused on a quirky female forensic pathologist who solved murders through unconventional but brilliant detective work. Sadly, Scarpetta’s mixed reviews proved the show was both too dark, gory, and gritty to replace the cozy crime drama of Bones and too campy and absurd to compete with Mindhunter, True Detective, or other dark cop shows.

Now, it is up to former Buffy the Vampire Slayer leading man/ Bones love interest David Boreanaz to finally provide a fitting replacement for the police procedural. Luckily, the actor who once starred as Bones’ FBI agent Seeley Booth has just the project to fill this niche. Boreanaz is set to play the title role in a reboot of The Rockford Files, an influential detective drama that starred James Garner from 1974 until 1980.

The Rockford Files Was A Massive NBC Hit That Started A Huge Franchise

James Garner as Jim Rockford in The Rockford Files

Coming from the same creator and star as the earlier Western hit Maverick, The Rockford Files played a big role in easing the small screen’s transition from Westerns to cop shows. While the Yellowstone franchise might be bringing back the small-screen Western in the 2020s, the genre once dominated the airwaves in the ‘60s. Gradually, long-running traditional, historical Western series like The Lone Ranger and Rawhide gave way to hit cop contemporary cop shows like Hawaii Five-0 and Kojak.

This was what prompted Garner to move from Maverick to The Rockford Files, where he played the ex-con turned PI Jim Rockford. Lasting 123 episodes and spawning eight spinoff TV movies and a spinoff TV show in the form of Richie Brockelman, Private Eye, The Rockford Files was a massive success throughout its six-season run. Considering Boreanaz’s history as a star of the police procedural genre, there is no reason to think his take on the franchise can’t be equally massive.

David Boreanaz’s Career History Proves The Rockford Files Could Be Huge

Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz in Bones

Between 246 episodes of Bones across 12 seasons and 114 episodes of SEAL Team across seven seasons, Boreanaz’s career history displays an astounding longevity when it comes to his choice of police procedural shows. That's without considering the fantasy series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Boreanaz’s five-season spinoff Angel as other (admittedly unconventional) police procedurals, with the former lasting seven seasons while the latter lasted another five.

Of course, Boreanaz’s upcoming detective drama reboot still faces one big hurdle, as evidenced by a look back on the franchise’s recent history. The failed 2010 reboot of The Rockford Files proves the original show’s uniquely ‘70s vibe is tough to recreate, meaning the cop show reboot isn’t necessarily guaranteed to be a massive hit out the gate. That said, the numbers are looking pretty good for the actor.

Boreanaz himself has four different successful police procedurals to his name, all of which lasted more than four seasons and which, between them, represent every end of the cop show spectrum, from Angel’s supernatural cop show to SEAL Team's gritty military action series to the quirky, offbeat dramedy of Bones. Meanwhile, The Rockford Files spawned a massive franchise and lasted a long time the first time around, which should further reassure fans of the star as 2026’s NBC reboot approaches.

Release Date 1974 - 1980-00-00

Directors William Wiard, Lawrence Doheny, Ivan Dixon, Jerry London, Reza Badiyi, Russ Mayberry, Jackie Cooper, Lou Antonio, Corey Allen, Jeannot Szwarc, Stephen J. Cannell, Alexander Grasshoff, Arnold Laven, Harry Falk, John Patterson, Stuart Margolin, Alexander Singer, Bernard L. Kowalski, Bernard McEveety, Bruce Kessler, Charles S. Dubin, Christian I. Nyby II, Dana Elcar, Hy Averback

Writers Gordon T. Dawson, Rudolph Borchert, Don Carlos Dunaway, Edward J. Lakso, David Taylor, Donald L. Gold, Rogers Turrentine, Walter Dallenbach, Lester Wm. Berke, William R. Stratton, Jo Swerling Jr., Leigh Brackett, Mitch Lindemann, Robert Hamner, Zekial Marko, Howard Berk, Shel Willens, Eric Kaldor, Gloryette Clark