Sheriff Country Season 2 Casts The OC & Gotham Alum With Unique Twist

Published Aug 24, 2026, 2:07 PM EDT

A spinoff of the hit CBS procedural Fire Country, Sheriff Country stars Baccarin as Edgewater's sheriff. The first season saw a major guest star stop by when country music singer Maren Morris played Skye's sponsor, Hazel. Multiple cast members from Fire Country have also made appearances, including Max Thieriot, Diane Farr, Kevin Alejandro and Jules Latimer.

Now a new guest star has been cast for Sheriff Country season 2 with a unique twist. CBS announced that Ben McKenzie will appear in the upcoming October 9 premiere, titled "Cyclone," as Sheriff Wade, who arrives from a neighboring town to help out Mickey Fox, who's still reeling from the shocking family secrets she discovered in the season 1 finale.

The sheriff will have to compartmentalize her personal and professional lives as she still has a job to do. In the Sheriff Country season 2 premiere, Mickey tries to help a woman who's gotten mixed up in a dangerous criminal operation that could put the entire town of Edgewater at risk. After she calls for additional help, Sheriff Wade shows up with assistance, but he has his own secrets he's dealing with.

What makes this guest appearance unique from past ones is that McKenzie and Baccarin are husband and wife in real life and will be sharing scenes on TV again after starring on Gotham.

The network also released two photos of McKenzie and Baccarin from the premiere. The first image shows Mickey, in civilian clothing, with her arm draped around Sheriff Wade's shoulders. The second image is a behind-the-scenes shot of the husband and wife smiling next to each other while on the set.

Check out the photos below:

Baccarin shared the exciting casting news on Instagram with a funny video and a caption that reads, "There's a new sheriff in town." Clad in her character's sheriff uniform, she walks into a room and looks over with exasperation. The camera pans to McKenzie sitting in a chair with a similar uniform. The two actors lip-sync lines from Family Guy, with Baccarin saying, "Oh, c***," and McKenzie replying, "Well, one of us is gonna have to change." As of this writing, over 5,000 Instagram users have liked the post.

This isn't the first time that Baccarin and McKenzie have worked together on screen. McKenzie's breakout role in the entertainment industry came via the hit drama The OC, in which he played Ryan Atwood. Baccarin guest starred in a handful of episodes during the third season.

Then, years later, the two actors starred together on the Batman prequel series Gotham, which aired for five seasons from 2014 to 2019. McKenzie played Detective James Gordon. Baccarin started out in a recurring role as Lee Thompkins before becoming a main cast member beginning with season 2. James and Lee were love interests on the show and later got married in the final season.

Behind the scenes, a similar love story was playing out, as Baccarin and McKenzie started dating while Gotham was on the air and got married in 2017. Now, seven years after Gotham ended, the husband and wife duo is about to appear on screen together again.

Sheriff Country season 2 premieres Friday, October 9 at 8 p.m. EDT on CBS.