HBO Max’s new crime series is officially moving forward with a veteran from the Rocky franchise and the director of Suicide Squad.
The long-running sports franchise now includes six Rocky and three Creed movies. This includes Rocky (1976), Rocky II (1979), Rocky III (1982), Rocky IV (1985), Rocky V (1990), Rocky Balboa (2006), Creed (2015), Creed II (2018), and Creed III (2023). As for Suicide Squad, the DC movie was released in 2016 and featured Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and Will Smith as Deadshot.
Now, as reported by Deadline, HBO Max has tapped Rocky franchise star Milo Ventimiglia and Suicide Squad director David Ayer to lead the pilot episode of American Blue. It is a police drama series that comes from former Supernatural showrunner Jeremy Carver and Warner Bros. Television. Ventimiglia plays Brian “Milk” Milkovich, a quiet but effective leader who comes back home to Joliet, Illinois to save his hometown’s police force and redeem himself from his past.
Beyond playing Rocky’s son, Robert Balboa Jr., in Rocky Balboa and Creed II, Milo Ventimiglia’s best-known role was as Jack Pearson in the hit NBC drama This Is Us, which ran for six seasons and earned him three Emmy Award nominations. By casting a popular network television star, HBO is following in the footsteps of The Pitt, which cast network TV actor Noah Wyle in the leading role. With American Blue, HBO is also taking a similar approach to The Pitt with an authentic approach to the subject matter, longer seasons, yearly releases, and a modest budget. Read a statement about the upcoming show from Sarah Aubrey, Head of Max Original Programming, below:
American Blue will take audiences inside a gritty and authentic police drama, reflecting the myriad challenges in policing today. As with The Pitt, our goal of longer seasons will allow viewers to sink deeply into this world across multiple episodes and to return to it on an annual basis. We can’t wait for Jeremy Carver’s vision for American Blue to come to life with Milo Ventimiglia in the lead role and David Ayer directing our pilot.
The Pitt‘s positive reviews for seasons 1 and 2, a near-perfect overall Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score of 97%, high viewership, and numerous Emmy wins have led to HBO wanting to replicate this success with more procedural shows. American Blue is not their only pilot in the works that is intended to follow this model, with a family drama called Survive Without Me also in development. Ventimiglia’s experience with network television comes alongside Carver’s own experience with Supernatural seasons that featured more than 20 episodes.
American Blue‘s Ayer, on the other hand, is newer to television, having only directed two episodes of Fox’s police drama Deputy. Other than Suicide Squad, his film directing credits include End of Watch, Netflix’s Bright, and the Jason Statham-led Beekeeper and A Working Man.