Why did Titus Makin Jr's Jackson West leave 'The Rookie'?
Police procedural dramas are always intriguing to watch and these shows get even better when they are based on real stories. One such drama is ABC’s ‘The Rookie’, which is based on the real-life Los Angeles Police Department officer William Norcross, who moved to Los Angeles in 2015 and joined the department in his mid-40s, making him the oldest rookie at the LAPD.
The series premiered in 2018 and ended its fourth season in May 2022. Nathan Fillion plays the lead role of John Nolan on the show and sees Alyssa Diaz (Angela Lopez), Richard T. Jones (Wade Grey), and Titus Makin Jr (Jackson West) playing pivotal roles. However, during the premiere of Season 4, we saw a major character getting killed off in one of the most unceremonious ways possible and yes, we are talking about Jackson West.
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Fans were stunned when they got to see how Jackson died in the first episode of Season 4 and kept on scratching their heads as to why the makers would write off such an amazing character from the show. So, here’s why Jackson West left ‘The Rookie’.
Why did Jackson West leave ‘The Rookie’?
The preparations for Jackson’s exit started happening right from the promotional stuff that started to come out before the season premiered. A lot of people realized that Jackson was missing in those teasers and trailers. In Season 3, we saw how his new TO, named Doug Stanton, was a racist and made his life miserable. He worked with one of his colleagues to get Stanton fired and they finally got succeeded in showing Stanton’s true colors.
However, the premiere of Season 4 saw Jackson getting killed in an unceremonious way, but it was the finale of the third edition where it all began. The ending moments of Season 3 saw Angela Lopez (Diaz) and Wesley Evers (Shawn Ashmore) getting married. However, La Fiera made a plan and captured the bride-to-be. When the fourth season began, it was revealed that Jackson has also been taken by La Fiera’s men. A few moments later, the security footage found by LAPD found that Jackson was shot in the neck and shoved into a truck.
As soon as the episode ended, fans went berserk on social media and said how forced the entire thing looked because killing a character in the middle of a story arc is so annoying.
His decision of leaving the series was confirmed by the showrunner Alexi Hawley himself. In an interview with TV Line, Hawley made it clear that Makin Jr. didn’t want to come back on the show and they had to do something to write his character off. He added, “What I can say is that Titus Makin [is] 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.”
So, that’s why the character was written off and we know that Makin Jr. is not making an appearance in the upcoming season.