EXCLUSIVE: The Lincoln Lawyer is eying a franchise expansion at Netflix with a spinoff series headlined by Cobie Smulders, reprising her role as Mickey Haller’s half-sister Artemisia “Emi” Finch, Deadline has learned. The script is being written by The Lincoln Lawyer executive producers Ted Humphrey, Dailyn Rodriguez and Matthew J. Lieberman, with A+E Studios producing.

Chatter about an Emi spinoff started percolating even before Netflix announced in May that Season 5 of The Lincoln Lawyer will be its last. Humphrey, Rodriguez and Lieberman spent some time honing in the concept and recently pitched it to Netflix, I hear. According to sources, it was well received, with the streamer buying the project in the room and commissioning a script for a quick turnaround.

As has been case with the mothership series starring Manuel Garcia Rulfo, the idea is to film in Los Angeles if the spinoff, like its predecessor, qualifies for a California tax credit.

A green light for the offshoot is also believed to be contingent on closing deals with all key auspices, a process that is ongoing.

Emi was introduced at the end of Season 4, with Smulders promoted to a series regular in Season 5.

In the upcoming Season 5, Mickey Haller’s (Rulfo) world is upended when the half-sister he never knew existed, Emi (Smulders), comes to him with a plea to help free a wrongfully convicted woman, a case he takes on, determined to set right an enormous miscarriage of justice.

Emi is an original character who is not in Michael Connelly’s books, on which The Lincoln Lawyer is based. She fills a void in Mickey’s family dynamic caused at least in part by his half-brother Harry Bosch not being in the picture due to the rights to the character being owned by Amazon. With Mickey’s half-brother having headlined his own series on Prime Video, it is only fitting for his sister to do the same on Netflix.

The Lincoln Lawyer, from A+E Studios, is executive produced by creator David E. Kelley, developer/co-showrunner Humphrey, Connelly, co-showrunner Rodriguez, Ross Fineman, Matthew J. Lieberman, Barry Jossen and Tana Jamieson.

Netflix estimates that the first four seasons have contributed over $425M to the California economy, employed over 4,300 cast and crew, and filmed at over 50 different locations across Los Angeles. The series has appeared on the Netflix Global Top 10 charts for 29 weeks to date and has garnered 171M views since 2023. Its most recent fourth season launched with 9M views for its opening weekend, which is actually up over the third season’s debut performance (7M).

In addition to her role on The Lincoln Lawyer, How I Met Your Mother and MCU alumna Smulders also has been recurring on Apple TV’s Shrinking. She is repped by UTA and Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman. Humphrey is repped by WME, Industry Entertainment and Hansen Jacobson Teller. Rodriguez is repped by Rothman Brecher Ehrich Livingston and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.

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