EXCLUSIVE: Max Thieriot, star, co-creator and govt producer of Fireplace Nation and co-creator/govt producer of spinoff Sheriff Nation, has signed a first-look cope with the studio behind the CBS drama franchise, CBS Studios.
Thieriot has been within the CBS/CBS Studios fold since he was solid as a collection common on the 2017 army drama SEAL Crew, transitioning to Fireplace Nation after the pilot was picked as much as collection that went on to turn out to be essentially the most watched freshman of the 2022-23 season.
“I’ve been working now with CBS and CBS Studios for nearly 10 years, and have come to like everyone over there,” Thieriot mentioned. “At this level they are surely like household, and that for me is without doubt one of the most necessary issues on this enterprise. From the start, they believed in me and supported me, serving to me alongside the way in which of discovering the perfect individuals to be concerned with.”
That help included Thieriot’s enlargement into directing on SEAL Crew and subsequently into writing and producing with Fireplace Nation, impressed by his private expertise rising up in Sonoma County, CA.
“I’ve all the time been a form of a storyteller,” Thieriot mentioned, recalling how he was operating round the home as a little bit child making movies of his mates with cumbersome VHS tape camcorders.
His first TV collection was Bates Motel the place he was a collection common and made his directorial debut, filming a co-starring position within the miniseries Texas Rising throughout a hiatus. He then transitioned straight into SEAL Crew.
“All through my profession, I’ve all the time wished to study and develop and discover methods to precise that creativity,” Thieriot mentioned. “Directing for me was a giant factor at first after appearing for a time frame after which, having learn so many scripts and seen so many alternative worlds, I assumed, why not give this writing factor a shot and see what I can put collectively right here.”
Thieriot co-created Fireplace Nation with veteran showrunners Tony Phelan and Joan Rater (Gray’s Anatomy) via CBS Studios-based Jerry Bruckheimer Tv, working intently with the corporate’s CEO KristieAnne Reed.
“Fireplace Nation was a giant turning level for me so far as producing and writing,” Thieriot mentioned, revealing his lofty ambitions from the get-go. “I really feel like I’m a type of those that was all the time placing the cart earlier than the horse a little bit bit. I feel earlier than it’d even aired, I used to be attempting to pitch 4 spinoff concepts.”
The horse has caught up with the cart by now — as Fireplace Nation is headed into its third season, it already has a greenlighted spinoff collection, Sheriff County starring Morena Baccarin, whose backdoor pilot episode of Fireplace Nation Thieriot directed from a script he’d co-written with Phelan and Rater. A second potential spinoff, starring Jared Padalecki, is being launched in a visitor arc on Fireplace Nation this season.
“Sheriff Nation we’re very enthusiastic about, Morena is unbelievable,” Thieriot mentioned of the collection, which is ready to debut in 2025-26 season. “We’ve been assembling a extremely unbelievable [writers] room, I spoke with Joan and Tony the opposite day, they usually’ve been over there working with [showrunner] Matt Lopez. I couldn’t be extra excited for that present to be popping out.”
It’s unclear but whether or not Thieriot will seem on Sheriff Nation as Bode however each exhibits stay in the identical universe so crossovers are probably, the one impediment being logistical since Fireplace Nation movies in Vancouver and Sheriff Nation in Toronto.
As for the potential Padalecki offshoot, “we’ll see the place all that stuff goes, I feel it’s early to have any actual replace on that entrance,” Thieriot mentioned. “However I feel all of us felt like Fireplace Nation was one thing that would turn out to be a franchise. And crucial individuals who imagine in which might be George [Cheeks] and Amy [Reisenbach] and David [Stapf] and everyone over there.”
Season 2 of Fireplace Nation ended with a cliffhanger because it minimize off earlier than Bode’s ex-girlfriend Gabriela was to say “I do” to another person.
Thieriot wouldn’t reveal whether or not Gabriela and Diego get married however confirmed that “there will probably be a helicopter crash within the Season 3 premiere, which goes to trigger a little bit of turmoil in the neighborhood, the entire city. Everybody who’s there may be going to need to get entangled, roll up their sleeves and get muddy and bloody.”
He additionally teased the theme for the firefighter drama’s new season.
“In Season 1 and a couple of, we had been actually centered on Bode’s redemption and him mending these relationships and attempting to construct again,” he mentioned. “Season 3 is a season that’s about legacy. We see Bode pushed by this need to be a firefighter and to proceed that dream and comply with the legacy of the Leone household. A significant portion of that journey is, how does he accomplish that? How does he attain these targets and turn out to be a firefighter, and what hurdles will probably be in his method?”
Thieriot has been busy filming Fireplace Nation for the reason that SEAL Crew collection finale dropped on Paramount+ every week in the past however is trying ahead to watching it as quickly as he has an opportunity.
“To see it finish was powerful. Additionally it was tough leaving that present, it has such an unbelievable solid and crew and simply actually, actually great individuals,” he mentioned. “There’s positively a significant case of FOMO the place I actually felt like, what are these individuals who I spent every single day with, what are they doing?”
Thieriot, who stays in contact with the solid and crew, mirrored on SEAL Crew‘s outsized influence.
“The present was a extremely unbelievable expertise, one as a result of I obtained to know everyone over at CBS Paramount and be a part of the CBS Paramount household, and clearly, the place these relationships and people friendships have taken me now has modified my profession without end.
“However, the present additionally left a big impact on me. It was a extremely humbling expertise to get to work with all these veterans and to get to inform these tales that, I feel, had been actually necessary and wanted to be advised to help the army neighborhood. I feel that present did an unbelievable job of bringing loads of issues to mild and bringing consciousness for individuals, and to have the ability to be a small a part of that and to inform a few of these actually impactful tales was life-changing for me.
“My hope is that with Fireplace Nation, we are able to proceed to do the identical factor for firefighters and first responders and give attention to a few of those self same human tales about actual struggles, about households and the way households are impacted.”
Whereas Thieriot admits that “Fireplace Nation and the Fireplace Nation universe is a big precedence of mine,” he additionally plans to steal a little bit time right here and there to write down new initiatives below his first-look cope with CBS Studios.
“I will probably be writing extra and hopefully there will probably be extra information to share on that and the rising of the franchise,” he mentioned.
Thieriot is repped by Gersh and McKuin Frankel Whitehead.
