Before you get your hopes up, no, a Southland wrap-up movie is not technically in the works, although the producers and the cast of the series — one of the most under-appreciated dramas ever — are certainly open to the possibility. Unfortunately, the push for it is not really there. There was some idea of a Kickstarter a la Veronica Mars soon after the series was cancelled, but that chatter also fizzled out. So, we will probably never see these characters — who left us a year ago — again.
That’s too bad. But, a few members of the cast, anyway, pitched some ideas for a wrap-up movie over on EW, and at least the hardcore Southland fans — all seven of us — can imagine what it might look like.
1. Ben McKenzie thinks that a school-shooting situation would make for a great premise:
That show in particular would be great to have a two-hour event — a school with an armed gunman inside and the entire group of Southland characters have to work together to defuse the situation — whatever the scenario is. You could do something really cool with the tactical-driven elements we tried to employ with the character stuff,” McKenzie said. “We have established that that’s a part of the show, those big events, and I feel like it would make sense to have a big, big event that brings us all together and kind of bonds us, has us have to work together.”
No disagreement here, except that they did have a school-shooting situation in an episode I believe in the final season, and it was a really solid episode.
2. Ben (McKenzie) and Sammy’s (Shawn Hotosy) partnership would definitely be done.
“That [relationship] is over,” Hatosy said. “Once Sammy decided to go back on patrol, he was pretty confident in the cop he was or he is, so [he decided] to head back and try to give these guys some sort of insight as to what they’re going to face and the decisions and how to face them. It sort of blew up in his face with Ben, but it’s all a learning experience. I think that that’s his goal as a police officer. I always enjoyed the fact that there was that line that he would sometimes maybe go over, but in the end, he knows who he is and he’s ultimately a decent guy. He’s had his issues, but he wants to make the right decisions.”
3. So, where should Sherman be? SWAT!
“I think that would be fantastic. That’s always been a very exciting idea for me, to throw that character into yet another incredibly challenging environment where he is yet again the new kid on the block, the one who has the most to learn and has to learn it quickly. And I think SWAT [is] the closest thing within the LAPD to the actual military — the way that it’s run, the way that it has to be obsessed with tactics and training and protocol. That kind of attention to detail and military precision, I think, would really appeal to him. And so if you jumped ahead and he was in that environment already or getting his feet wet into it, I think that sort of ups the bar a little bit and could be a really great jumping-off point. Maybe there’s a scenario like [a school shooting] and SWAT is called in and all of a sudden you realize that Ben Sherman is actually a member of SWAT.”
4. What about John Cooper? Did he survive? Damn straight he did!
Everyone can relax. Yes, John Cooper is alive. “I don’t think John Cooper died in that alley,” [Southland Executive Producer] Chulack confirmed. Because, as McKenzie put it, “You can’t kill the Cooper.”
5. So, what’s Cooper doing, then? Probably working off duty, according to Cudlitz:
“I would think there would have to be a massive change, even if he was given some sort of pass,” he said. “I always thought that Cooper lived and then all of his suspicions were actually confirmed, that we actually found not just the one gun that I knocked out of the other guy’s hand, but another gun. The other guy was packing another gun behind him in his waistband, and then we found possibly a bunch of other weapons inside the house and it was a drug situation. His instincts were all correct, [but] his way of dealing with it was completely out of line, thus confirming that he should not have been on duty, he should not have been carrying a weapon, like his captain told him. So where does he go from there? Does he go and train at the academy? Does he totally remove himself from law enforcement? Because that does complete him, that is something that he lives for and defines him in a lot of ways. He’s very much alive, very much dealing with his past as he has been from day one.”
Oh, and Dewey? Yeah, he probably got fired, according to Chulack. Makes sense.
But, we will probably never see any of this come to fruition, though there’s still a glimmer of hope in a potential independent movie somewhere down the road.
Source: EW
