Suits Spinoff Set in LA Is Coming: "Great Storytelling and Great Character Work"

There’s something endlessly appealing about a person who can effectively pretend to be something they are not. It’s the reason we tell stories of conmen and spies. It’s also one of the main reasons the USA series Suits was, and remains, so popular. Now, fans will have more to soak up with a new spinoff series set in Los Angeles.

The high-stakes legal drama, created by Aaron Korsh (Everybody Loves Raymond, Just Shoot Me), premiered on June 23, 2011, and ran for nine seasons, totaling 134 episodes. However, since then, the show has found a renewed success on streaming, with Peacock being the exclusive home to every episode of the show. 

RELATED: Suits Star Patrick J Adams Ignites Reunion Hopes With Behind-The-Scenes Photos

The original show follows Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams), a college dropout with a photographic memory and an encyclopedic knowledge of the law. Despite his lack of official qualifications, Mike’s unique talents are enough to get him a gig working with attorney Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht), solving cases on the sly at a New York City law firm. 

But while Mike and Harvey were being a legal dynamic duo on the east coast, some may be wondering what was happening on the other side of the country. Now, a new spinoff to the show will answer that very question.

Suits spinoff series set in Los Angeles, California coming to NBC

Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) and Rachel Zane (Meghan Markle) appear in Season 4 Episode 11 of Suits Photo: Shane Mahood/USA Network

NBC has officially picked up a pilot order for a new series titled The upcoming spinoff series, Suits: L.A. that will follow a brand new character named Ted Black, a former federal prosecutor from New York. According to the show's logline, Black has since reinvented himself as an attorney to high-powered clients in the City of Angels. However, his firm is at a crisis point, and in order to survive he must embrace a role he held in contempt his entire career. Meanwhile, events from years ago will start to unravel and force Black to confront things he thought he'd left behind.

He won't be doing it alone. Ted is surrounded by a stellar group of characters who test their loyalties to both him and each other. In true Suits fashion, their professional and personal lives will mix and the high-stakes drama will continue to unfold. 

Previously, Beatrice Springborn, president of Universal International Studios, said that the spinoff show would take place in the same time period as the original (via Variety), but those details have not yet been confirmed.. Springborn was speaking to the audience at Content London 2023, an entertainment industry conference. This year’s event ran from November 27 - 30. Springborn also told the audience they could expect the new show to “have the same energy and good-looking people the original did.”

“It is amazing-looking people in great clothes but at the core of it, you can’t have a show that’s successful with just that. It has to have great storytelling and great character work. So how do you do something that can be ongoing, have a gloss to it and be a continuing series that everyone wants?” Springborn said, communicating the balance creators are trying to maintain.

Part of maintaining that balance includes tapping the original series creator, Aaron Korsh, to pen the new stories. Springborn noted the continued success of the original series on streaming services as evidence that audiences are hungry for more of the Suits world. 

“A lot of streamers are looking for ongoing series, things that feel easy to watch,” Springborn said. 

Suits continues to show strong numbers via streaming and creators are banking on that readymade audience making the move with them to L.A. The spinoff show is expected to begin filming in March. So look out world, Suits is far from over.

While we’re waiting, catch up on all nine seasons of Suits and the one-season spinoff Pearson, streaming now on Peacock