The Rookie's Identity Crisis: Is Nolan Losing the Spotlight on His Own Show?

Currently, the last episodes of season five are being aired, and the show doesn't seem to lose any of its appeal. But so many years into making, The Rookie has already undergone lots of changes, with the most conspicuous one being the reduction of the main character's screen time.

"Nolan's time on screen is far less and a B story. He only gets screen time setting up the Rookie Feds stuff. […] I like his new Mentor role deal, but seasons 1 and 2 all had equal screen time but Nolan was always in the main story," Redditor Nedstark78 expressed their concerns.

With Nolan being the eponymous rookie on the show, it's understandable why he was the center of attention in the earlier seasons and why fans expect to see more of him on screen. But since the series has been on the air for five years, certain changes seem inevitable, and it looks like The Rookie is transforming into a more complicated project with many plot lines.

Fans speculate that Nathan Fillion, the actor portraying John Nolan, was a super-star bait to attract larger audiences that know him from his previous successful projects, such as Castle.

Now that the actor has served his purpose, he can be moved to the sidelines of the main story, leaving space for the other cast members to shine. However, it's also quite possible that Fillion himself wanted to step out of the show's spotlight.

"Fillion has spoken before about how much work it is to be a main character, and he's also an executive producer for the show. He's probably done this intentionally, so he's not working himself too hard," user Shrimpy_McWaddles shared their guess with the other fans.

Indeed, recalling his time on Castle, Fillion said that it's very difficult to be the character a show revolves around and do the heavy lifting all on your own. As The Rookie's executive producer, he could allow himself as much screen time as he wanted, so it seems reasonable to suggest this change in the show's character balance was intentional.

And this may well be the right decision, considering the fact that ensemble cast shows are usually more interesting and better written, attracting more viewers to watch them.

So as The Rookie is gradually turning into a full-blown ensemble cast series, we should look forward to different new storylines emerging throughout the show's diverse landscape. Will John Nolan continue to play a prominent role in any of them? Who knows, but fans certainly hope so.