The midseason finale of Boston Blue finally mentioned Tony Terraciano‘s character, Jack Reagan, but is he one of the upcoming Blue Bloods cameos after Donnie Wahlberg‘s other onscreen son was already recast?
During the Friday, December 19, episode of the CBS series, Danny (Wahlberg) revealed that Jack was doing Doctors Without Borders in Africa, which was a nod to Terraciano, 25, attending medical school to earn his Doctor of Medicine.
“It’s important to us that we keep the universe alive. We are an expansion of the Blue Bloods universe, and we really, really take that to heart,” executive producer Brandon Sonnier exclusively told Us Weekly about the subtle Jack mention. “So we want to check in on the other members of the family. We want to feel like their lives are growing and ongoing outside of the bubble that we see on Boston Blue.”
He continued: “So it is important to us to kind of keep track of where everyone is, where their lives are taking them and hopefully we do get to drop in and visit them in the future.”
Viewers saw Jack and Sean (Andrew Terraciano) grow up in front of their eyes, so imagine their surprise when CBS ordered the Boston Blue spinoff, which focuses on Danny’s relationship with his youngest — with a twist. Before Blue Bloods premiered in October, the role of Sean was recast with newcomer Mika Amonsen.
Executive producer Brandon Margolis opened up to Us about the chances of involving Andrew in the spinoff — perhaps in a role that nods at his Blue Bloods origins.
“I love that idea. It’s really clever and I think it’s something Donnie would probably be into as well,” he teased to Us. “Because he’s the one always trying to work in New Kids on the Block references. I’m sure Donnie would be open to it. But I think that it’s a very clever idea. If the right opportunities are there, we never say no to a great idea.”
The showrunners also weighed in on finding a way to bring Jack on screen — even if that meant recasting the role.
Andrew Terraciano in ‘Blue Bloods’, Mika Amonsen in ‘Boston Blue’. John Paul Filo/CBS; Adam-Zwelling/CBS
“Is there a chance? Yes, there is a chance,” Sonnier shared. “We can tell you that there are more family members that will be joining us in the back half of the season. It is an ongoing conversation about various arcs and where we can pay homage, where we can include and where we can expand the universe. We’re huge fans of Blue Bloods and any chance that we get that we can live fully in the universe and include the Reagans is a chance that we jump to take.”
In addition to the Reagans, Boston Blue follows the Silver family, which also includes Marcus Scribner as Jonah, Gloria Reuben as Jonah’s mother, Mae, Ernie Hudson as Jonah’s grandfather, Sonequa Martin-Green as Jonah’s sister and Maggie Lawson as his stepsister, Sarah.
The midseason finale showed Mae facing backlash for looking into a crooked district attorney, which led to all the cases he worked on being called into question. As a result, her late husband Ben’s murder case was placed under review and his killer walked free.
Jonah didn’t deal well with the decision and he spent most of Friday’s episode putting himself in danger while following his father’s murderer. At the end of the finale, Jonah followed the killer into a building — only for Danny and Lena (Martin-Green) to burst in after hearing a gunshot and seeing the man dead while Jonah was covered in blood.
“The most interesting stories to tell in that format are the most emotional ones. So it made the most sense to us that exploring grief about their father, which had been sort of a touchstone for the whole Silver family,” Margolis noted to Us. “Since the pilot, that made the most sense to us as storytellers, as the thing that should mine the emotion that would carry us over into the back half of the season. It was a really fun opportunity to explore that with Jonah’s character because Marcus is such a phenomenal actor. A lot of people don’t realize how talented he is in the dramatic sense. It was a really fun opportunity for us to write something for him to get to explore and to show off.”
Sonnier teased how Jonah seemingly being accused of murder will play out.
“We do get into the police procedure of it and it’s really about the family rallying around Jonah to get to the bottom of this crime. Also to truly put together not only what happened but why it happened to bed the larger crime at play here in the murdering of the former patriarch of the Silver family,” he added. “This is truly an ordeal for Danny, Sean, Lena, Sarah and Mae and all the rest of the family as they rally to try and save Jonah from his own actions.”
Boston Blue, which has been renewed for season 2, will continue to push boundaries, with Margolis adding, “We’re looking more into the emotional cliffhangers that can carry between seasons — rather than a procedural one. But that is the fun of this show is that these characters are so rich and have so many deep back stories that we can get to explore and put under pressure that there’s a lot of exciting opportunities.”
Boston Blue returns to CBS Friday, February 27, at 10 p.m. ET. New episodes will be streaming the next day on Paramount+.
