The Rookie Season 4 premiere featured a shocking development.
The character of Jackson West was abruptly killed off, leading to the immediate exit of original cast member Titus Makin Jr.
Despite the cliffhanger in the Season 3 finale, which saw some police officers kidnapped by La Fiera (Camille Guaty), it wasn’t expected that a character would be killed.
In the Season 4 premiere, the remaining cops watch security footage in which Jackson died from a single gunshot to the head. As a tribute, Angela (Alyssa Diaz) named her newborn baby after him. Makin did not return to film the scene, with a double used in his stead.
The reason for Jackson’s death is quite complicated, but originated from Makin Jr., who wanted to leave the series.
Titus Makin Jr. had Complicated Feelings About Being on ‘The Rookie’
Playing a police officer on television carried extra weight for Makin Jr., who felt that the show was not doing enough to address systemic issues in law enforcement. The actor felt complacent in this warped portrayal of cops, which differed so much from the real world.
“It was a bit of a bigger situation than I was able to fully describe at that time,” he said in an interview while discussing his character on the show.
“Because it starts back for me, even just playing a cop in the first place, which was a hurdle [with] where I’m from and how I viewed the cops growing up. To play one, I already was wrestling with, ‘Oh man, people are gonna think I’m Team Cops.’ And the reality was I was struggling.”
Makin Jr. pushed through these feelings for two seasons and was ready to leave in The Rookie Season 3.
However, he went to showrunner Alexi Hawley with his concerns, and Hawley listened, incorporating a racism storyline that heavily involved Jackson.
“But even more so recently, when we were about to come back for Season 3, with everything that was happening in the press that we were seeing, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, all those things going on. It really helped me find a voice within myself that I think a lot of people are finding right now,” Makin Jr. said.
“Thankfully, our showrunner is amazing and has a huge heart. I was like, ‘This could get me fired, but I know for myself, as the man I’m becoming, that I need to say something, and I don’t feel right about going to tell a story about a cop [and] not addressing the reality of what that cop may be going through.’ [Hawley] was like, “What if I do this? What if I work up the story arc and let you see where we plan to go?”
This conversation gave birth to the Doug Stanton (Brandon Routh) storyline, which finds Jackson on the receiving end of a racist cop after he stands up to him.
Makin Jr. Decided To Leave ‘The Rookie’ for Undisclosed Reasons
Photo: ABCHowever, that was not enough, and going into Season 4, Makin Jr. was not willing to return for another season.
“What I can say is that Titus was not coming back to the show, so we needed to do the best that we could to honor the character who’s been so primally a part of the show,” Hawley said ahead of Season 4’s premiere.
“It’s heartbreaking but I didn’t really have a choice. He wasn’t coming back, and because of the way we set things up with the [Season 3] finale, there was just no way to tell that story without Jackson…. But we lean really hard into honoring how he was the heart of the show, and it was definitely impactful for us to have to deal with that.”
Neither the showrunner nor the actor spoke about this departure, avoiding addressing the real reason that led to his exit, even when everything seemed to be going well. Makin Jr. did not conduct any exit interviews, which are typically conducted when an actor decides to leave a show.
The Rookie continues airing on ABC.
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