Morena Baccarin (Homeland) will play a leading role in a possible spin-off of Fire Country

Morena Baccarin, known from Homeland, will appear in an upcoming episode of Fire Country. In the episode in question, Baccarin plays a sheriff character who could lead her own series. Baccarin will guest star in the season two episode with an option to become the lead actress in a possible spin-off series. Like the main series, the proposed spinoff would be produced by CBS Studios.

Fire Country stars Max Thieriot as a young convict who seeks redemption and a shorter prison sentence by participating in a firefighting program in his rural Northern California hometown of Edgewater.



In the planned spin-off episode, airing later in the season, Baccarin (pictured) will play Mickey, a sheriff's deputy for 15 years who knows every corner of Edgewater... and every one of its residents. This is her town and she is very protective of it.

Baccarin emerged as the top choice for the role from the start and has been in negotiations for it since before the holidays. The actress, known for her leading roles in the Deadpool and Firefly/Serenity franchises, received an Emmy nomination for her role in Showtime's Homeland. She also starred in the ABC sci-fi drama V (2009) and Fox's Gotham and was recently the lead actress in the NBC thriller heist series The Endgame. On CBS she appeared in the successful crime series The Mentalist.

The sheriff-centric episode isn't considered a backdoor pilot, as sources say the project is expected to go through another phase of development before a possible series order, but its reception will likely be key to the spinoff's chances of going on. A CBS representative declined to comment.

CBS' decision to explore a Fire Country spinoff isn't surprising, considering the drama was the most-watched new series last season, averaging eight million viewers per episode, ten million in live+35 multi-platform.

CBS president and CEO George Cheeks hinted at the possibility of a Fire Country spinoff during a conversation with Deadline's Peter White at the Banff World Media Festival in June.

“We are focused on mass-appeal franchises,” Cheeks said. “This season’s number one show was Fire Country, which completely lends itself to building out a whole new universe… It became very clear that not only was the show special, it really felt like this could be a great example of us building together a franchise from scratch. And so I’m like, ‘you guys, congratulations, you got your back nine. Now let’s start talking about ideas for new extensions.’ They’ve already come up with some great ones.”

CBS already has two other spin-off series planned for next season, an NCIS prequel about young Gibbs and a Young Sheldon prequel about Georgie & Mandy.

Fire Country, from Jerry Bruckheimer Television and CBS Studios, is inspired by Thieriot's experiences growing up in Fire Country and comes from an original idea by the actor, who also wrote the story for the pilot with writers Tony Phelan and Joan Rater . The three will produce alongside showrunner Tia Napolitano and JBTV's Jerry Bruckheimer and Kristie Anne Reed.

The upcoming second season of Fire Country - shortened and delayed due to the strikes - airs Friday, February 16.