The Cold Case reboot has gone cold. It was reported back in April that a reboot of the CBS procedural was in the works. Original stars Kathryn Morris and Danny Pino were eager to join the series and had hoped to come back as Detectives Lilly Rush and Scotty Valens, but the network wanted to bring in a whole new cast. Now it seems like casts old and new won’t be able to experience Cold Case.
Deadline reports that CBS is not moving forward with a reboot and did not make it past the “deal-making stage.” The original series ran for seven seasons from 2003 to 2010 and also starred Justin Chambers, John Finn, Jeremy Ratchford, Thom Barry, and Tracie Thoms. It centered on a division of the Philadelphia Police Department that specialized in cold cases. The reboot would have been set in the Southwest rather than just Philadelphia, taking viewers all over the place with a new group of detectives. Cold Case creator Meredith Stiehm was reportedly set to write the script and serve as executive producer.
The reason for the cancellation is unknown, and it’s certainly a disappointment for those who were looking forward to it. It’s hard to tell if CBS would have moved forward with the reboot if the original cast were returning instead of having new characters, but fans will never know. This doesn’t necessarily mean that a Cold Case reboot won’t ever happen. It just means it won’t happen any time soon. Since Morris and Pino seemed to be interested in returning, perhaps that can still happen in the future.
Reboots, revivals, and spinoffs are constantly happening these days and sometimes it’s a good thing, other times it’s not. For Cold Case, it just wasn’t the time, which is surprising considering procedurals are still all the rage these days. Even though the concept was different from the original, it would have been interesting to see a group of detectives solving cold cases in various parts of the country. Unfortunately, that will not be happening, at least not any time soon. Fans can still watch the original Cold Case on Max and Hulu and imagine what a reboot would look like. It’s certainly better than nothing, but you never know what could happen in the future.