How Suits Spinoff Promises To Be Similar To Original Hit Show Explained By Universal Exec

Suits‘ spinoff show gets an update from Universal executive Beatrice Spingborn, who promises some key similarities to the original. First airing in 2011, the hit legal drama follows a college dropout named Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) who finds himself working for top New York City lawyer Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht). After 9 successful seasons, the show came to an end in 2019, but it’s recent streaming success on Netflix led to the announcement in October that a spinoff set in L.A. is on the way.

Now, as audiences await news on the Suits spinoff show, Springhorn, president of Universal International Studios and Universal Content Productions, reveals at Content London (via Variety) how the spinoff will compare to the original. The executive teases that the spinoff will “have the same energy and good looking people that the original did.” Check out Springborn’s full comment below:

“We are working on it right now. It’s so fun and happy.

“A lot of streamers are looking for ongoing series, things that feel easy to watch. Our show ‘Suits’ is incredibly huge on Netflix. It is amazing looking people in great clothes but at the core of it you can’t have a show that’s successful with just that. It has to have great storytelling and great character work. So how do you do something that can be ongoing, have a gloss to it and be a continuing series that everyone wants?”

Will Suits’ Spinoff Be As Popular As The Original?

Suits was popular during its 9-season run on on the USA Network, but it didn’t actually reach the zenith of its popularity until this year, 4 years after it aired its final episode. The show became available to stream on Netflix this past summer and promptly became a global phenomenon, leading viewership charts for weeks and breaking records. It’s unclear, however, whether a spinoff will be able to capture this same magic.

The fate of Pearson, for example, casts doubt on whether a Suits spinoff can succeed without the original cast. Following Gina Torres’ Suits character Jessica Pearson as she embarks on a new venture in Chicago, Pearson was cancelled after just 1 season in 2019. The L.A. spinoff has been billed as a fresh story, with creator Aaron Korsch confirming that it is neither a reboot nor a revival. The wording here suggests that it will likely feature an entirely new cast, though it’s certainly possible some original characters return in some capacity.

Even if some original Suits cast members do return, it’s unlikely that the spinoff will reach the same heights of the original. Clearly, the original show became available on Netflix at the perfect time, and watching it became something of a communal viral phenomenon. Replicating this would be very challenging, but it’s certainly possible that the Suits spinoff achieves its own respectable level of success, especially if it maintains key ingredients from the original.