Netflix’s legal thriller The Lincoln Lawyer will be back for its final season in early 2027, but it will do so with a new character at the center of its story. While the show is preparing to bow out in style, it’s just the beginning for a protagonist who’s taking the baton from Manuel Garcia-Rulfo’s maverick defense lawyer Mickey Haller.
As with other seasons of this Netflix megahit, The Lincoln Lawyer season 5 is based on a specific Michael Connelly novel featuring Mickey. Connelly’s 2023 publication Resurrection Walk picks up where season 4 source book The Law of Innocence left off. However, this latest adaptation comes with a twist.
This time around, Netflix is introducing a main character into The Lincoln Lawyer who’s never featured in Michael Connelly’s literary universe. Namely, season 5 of the show will involve a collaboration between Haller and the character Artemisia “Emi” Finch. Emi is an invention of the series and its writers, who’s being inserted into Mickey’s story in place of his half-brother, Harry Bosch.
Perhaps even more crucially, she’s getting her very own Netflix spinoff once The Lincoln Lawyer is over and done with as a series. Indeed, at least one episode in season 5 will effectively serve as a backdoor pilot for the series Finch is going to be fronting full-time, likely without Mickey Haller by her side.
The Lincoln Lawyer Is Introducing Cobie Smulders As A Main Character In Season 5
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Now that The Lincoln Lawyer season 5 has wrapped filming, we can count down the months to its expected release in March 2027. Then, we’ll see Cobie Smulders starring alongside Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as his character’s long-lost sister. Although Mickey Haller does have half-sisters in Michael Connelly’s literary source material for the show, they never actually appear in any of his novels.
Smulders’ character Emi Finch is an entirely original TV creation, invented out of necessity because Netflix doesn’t have the rights to feature Harry Bosch, a prominent figure in the book on which season 5 is based, in their flagship legal drama. This rewriting of Resurrection Walk gives Finch a pivotal role in Mickey’s latest case.
At the same time, it sets up another Netflix series in which all the focus will be on the character Smulders is playing. This spinoff show may not have a name yet, but it’s already expanding The Lincoln Lawyer‘s expansion into a multi-series streaming franchise to rival Prime Video’s Bosch.
In fact, Netflix seems to be taking its lead directly from Prime Video when it comes to building a TV universe based on Michael Connelly’s work. Just as Bosch: Legacy‘s final season laid all the groundwork for the Bosch spinoff sequel Ballard, The Lincoln Lawyer‘s last outing will be the transition from Mickey’s story to the world of Emi Finch.
Emi Finch Is Taking Over From Mickey Haller As The Lincoln Lawyer’s Protagonist
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With The Lincoln Lawyer‘s Cobie Smulders spinoff already in development, it’s clear that Emi is about to take over as this Netflix franchise’s protagonist. Mickey Haller has had a great run, and many viewers are desperately sad to see his small-screen series come to an end after just five years, and 50 episodes.
On the other hand, it’s an exciting time to be a Michael Connelly fan, as the prospect of a brand-new character’s story being told onscreen for the first time – with Connelly himself supervising its production – is arguably worth Mickey’s show coming to a somewhat premature end. It’s no coincidence, either, that Emi Finch’s spinoff is set to coincide with Prime Video’s original Bosch prequel story Start of Watch.
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Connelly is still publishing more Haller and Bosch novels, while his last literary protagonist Detective Sergeant Stilwell is being brought to the screen by HBO. But surely Netflix’s plan for life after Mickey Haller offers the most potential of any upcoming project.
Netflix has the scope to build a completely fresh character backstory from scratch within the universe of The Lincoln Lawyer, fronted by established A-list screen talent in Cobie Smulders, with veteran legal genre screenwriter David E. Kelley continuing to oversee the franchise as executive producer. It’s a case even Mickey couldn’t argue against.
The Lincoln Lawyer
This legal drama follows Mickey Haller, a Los Angeles defense attorney known for operating from his Lincoln Town Car, as he revives his career after an accident by taking on a high-profile murder case.
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