‘Suits’ Creator on Bringing Back Harvey Specter for ‘Suits LA,’ With More Original Stars Likely to Return – Hollywood Reporter
Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood ReporterSubscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter”I would love to have them all on,” Aaron Korsh said of his ‘Suits’ alum, but “I don’t want to have them all on one after the other because I think it harms the original and the new show to do that.”
By
Kirsten Chuba
Events Editor
Gabriel Macht‘s Harvey Specter is back on TV, this time with an appearance on Suits spinoff series Suits LA.
The new show stars Stephen Amell as Ted Black, a former New York prosecutor who has built a Los Angeles law firm that specializes in criminal and entertainment law. To maintain a link to the original series, creator Aaron Korsh — who was behind both projects — looked at who he could bring back from his previous cast, and “Ted was a prosecutor in New York, Harvey was a prosecutor in New York, so it seemed like a perfect fit.”
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Korsh reconnected with Macht when he and Patrick J. Adams shot a Suits-inspired Super Bowl ad for T-Mobile in 2024, and took a leap of faith when putting together the spinoff. “When we shot the pilot, we put a picture of him in the pilot without me having discussed it with Gabriel. I knew we could always take it out if he didn’t want to do it, but it would be harder to put back in,” Korsh told The Hollywood Reporter at the show’s L.A premiere on Thursday. “So we did it and when we got a [series] pickup I called Gabriel and just asked him if he wanted to come play and he graciously said yes.”
Macht said that for fans of the original series, “if they can let go of that cast and welcome a new cast, there’s so many similarities and enough differences that people are going to be like alright, I can get into this,” adding that “what Aaron’s done with inviting me back is I think it does open up opportunities for other original cast members to come in and out and play and have little Easter eggs.”
Korsh echoed the same strategy, noting he “wanted to make sure it was an organic bringing people in, not just a parade of old characters.” With that being said, “I would love to have them all on, [but] I don’t want to have them all on one after the other because I think it harms the original and the new show to do that. So we’re just going to see how it goes.”
As Amell takes over as lead of the franchise, he’s also a fan of the Harvey appearance, saying, “I love that there’s a tie-in. And also if you’re a fan of the original, it’s like OK, it’s been however many years since we’ve seen this character — what is he doing, what is up to, where’s he living, how’s his life? All of that, so you get to find that stuff out.”
Korsh said he knew “15 seconds into his audition” that Amell was the right actor to lead this Hollywood-set story, and is keeping an open mind when it comes to further projects in the Suits universe.
“We had talked about potentially having a Suits movie at some point but I did have other projects in the works prior to this happening” that he’s also working on, Korsh said. “The future is wide open. I’m certainly open to more things happening, but it’s not easy. This show was not [originally] written as to be a Suits spinoff; it takes me a long time to get inspired to do something. I don’t want to do something just because we can, so it remains to be seen.”
Suits LA premieres Sunday on NBC and next day on Peacock. Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every daySign up for THR news straight to your inbox every daySubscribe for full access to The Hollywood ReporterSend us a tip using our anonymous form.
