Sources say CBS is in final negotiations to set up a spinoff of The Good Wife focusing on Christine Baranski’s Diane Lockhart character that would air on CBS All Access.
Actress Cush Jumbo, who joined The Good Wife cast in the show’s seventh and final season, is also expected to star in the spinoff. Sources cautioned that the deal is still in negotiations for a straight-to-series order and may not come to fruition.
The Good Wife co-creators/executive producers Robert and Michelle King would likely co-write the project with another Good Wife alum.
Word that CBS is serious talks for a spinoff surfaced less than a week after Good Wife wrapped its Emmy-winning run on May 8. The series closer generated much discussion about the fate of its central characters and the denouement between Baranski’s Lockhart and Julianna Margulies’ Alicia Florrick.
Jumbo, a British actress known for her work on stage and in the series Torchwood, signed on at the start of the final season, playing a sharp, no-nonsense attorney who became a friend and confidant of Florrick.
Discussions for Baranski’s Good Wife spinoff are believed to have in the works for some time. Throughout pilot season, Baranski was the first choice for many lead roles in dramas and comedies across multiple broadcast networks, though she turned down all the offers, even one particular project that was extremely high-profile. Her team likely had the spinoff in mind when nixing offers parts for the newly-available star.
In addition to the Good Wife spinoff, the Kings have an offbeat horror dramedy, BrainDead, set to release on June 13. The series stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead as a young woman who gets a job on Capitol Hill only to discover that zombies are eating the brains of many in the US Congress. – Reuters/Cynthia Littleton
