Summary

Collider’s Chris McPherson spoke with Ballard star Maggie Q and author Michael Connelly ahead of the series premiere.

During these interviews, Maggie Q discusses wanting Ballard to stand out on its own, and how the spin-off series offers a fresh tone.

Connelly also discusses how Ballard serves as a new lens to explore more of the Bosch universe in Los Angeles.

With Bosch: Legacy coming to an end after three seasons and closing out a 10-season run when combined with the original Bosch, fans of Michael Connelly’s Los Angeles crime universe were eager to see what could possibly come next for the world. After a decade of gritty cases and Titus Welliver’s steely stare, it was hard to imagine someone new filling the shoes. Enter a character lifted from Connelly’s bestselling novels and Prime Video’s spin-off, Ballard. Starring Maggie Q as Detective Renée Ballard, the franchise pivots to offer a fresh tone and a different kind of detective at its center – cut from the same cloth as Bosch (Welliver), but fully capable of standing entirely on her own. Ahead of the series premiere on the streamer, Collider’s Chris McPherson sat down with author and executive producer Connelly and star Maggie Q to discuss what sets Ballard apart from its predecessor, how the show navigates the weight of Bosch’s legacy, and why this new chapter is both timely and necessary.
Maggie Q Wanted to Do Something Different – and Knew Ballard Had to Stand on Her Own

“If we weren’t doing something different, then what are we doing?”

For Maggie Q, joining a project tied to the Bosch universe came with certain expectations — but it was precisely the chance to do something new that drew her in. “We’re 10 years past when Bosch started,” she told Collider. “We’re moving into a new decade of television, and so we have to elevate and approach it differently.” While the new central detective may live in the same world as Bosch, she moves through it differently. The series trades in a grizzled veteran hardened by decades on the job for a driven truth-seeker with something to prove while she chases answers.
“There’s a void that they have to fill. And I think part of what pushes us out into the world, especially when it comes from either trauma or a gaping hole, can be very beneficial to others, to the public, if you work in public service. Being mentored by these detectives and seeing who they were and what they went through and seeing their different motivations, I see a lot of the underlying motivation being that they’re either running from something or running towards something that is very hard to face. So, it all comes from seeking, but that seeking comes from, again, this emptiness.”
To build the character, Maggie worked closely with real-life LAPD detective Mitzi Roberts, the inspiration for Ballard in Connelly’s books. Being particularly drawn to Roberts’ blend of compassion and command, Maggie allowed this balance to shape how Ballard is portrayed as a leader, especially in the show’s more comedic moments. “She’s not here to be people’s emotional support animals,” Maggie explains. “When they’re doing something wrong, she has to tell them.” And while Ballard exists in the same universe as Bosch, Maggie is adamant that the new series needs space to define itself, and not have Ballard be constantly walking in the shadow of Welliver’s detective. “Michael Connelly and the producers alike, we all agreed when we sat down before I even took this that if we weren’t doing something different, then what are we doing?” she said. “And because we all agreed on that, I thought, ‘Yeah, this will be fun to find,’ like you said, ‘Our place within a place.’”

Related

‘Ballard’ Needs To Stand Alone, but ‘Bosch’ Crossovers Aren’t off the Table, According To Prime Video Showrunner

The series premieres on July 9.

To Connelly, ‘Ballard’ Isn’t Just a Spin-Off, It’s a New Lens To View the World

“We wanted to build this for long-term success.”

For Connelly, moving from Bosch to Ballard was never purely about extending the franchise. It was about exploring more of the universe that the two Bosch series never had the chance to focus on, offering something new to the franchise. “We just didn’t want to extend Bosch and do the same thing,” Connelly explained to Collider. He goes on to add:
“We wanted to explore other parts of Los Angeles that we kind of stayed away from. We wanted to be more on the ocean, which adds to that lightness that you were saying. We wanted to build this for long-term success. We wanted to be a show that stood on its own feet.”
The freshness doesn’t mean that what Bosch was established on is completely forgotten to the past. “I mean, it does borrow from Bosch. Bosch is even in it from time to time,” Connelly notes. “But the face of the show is Maggie Q, and we wanted her to run with it, and be her own person, and have her own show.” The casting of Maggie Q brought synchronicity to the role. Many details that Connelly had already written into Ballard’s backstory, including growing up in Hawaii and a father who experienced the Vietnam War, mirrored Maggie’s reality. “What’s unusual in this case was that so much of Maggie Q’s real life is like Ballard’s fictional life that I created before I knew Maggie Q or knew anything about her,” he states. “That coincidence was really kind of eye-opening to me.” For Connelly, seeing his characters jumping off the page to be brought to life onscreen is a feeling he describes as “thrilling,” though that doesn’t mean it doesn’t come with its own set of challenges. Still, he remains confident in Ballard’s evolution from the page to the screen, leaning into the series’ tonal shift to make Ballard feel both grounded and refreshing. “It’s a dark world,” Connelly acknowledges. “You want to be accurate about that. You don’t want to avoid that, but at the same time, you have to step back from it and be on a surfboard, or have these funny anecdotal-type things happen, because that is reflective of real life.” Despite Bosch: Legacy ending sooner than audiences may have expected, Connelly doesn’t see the ending as casting a shadow over Ballard. Noting that Bosch had its 10-year run, Connelly and the creative team felt like it was time to pivot fully, while still maintaining connective threads for existing fans to hold onto. What is maintained through the transition from Bosch to Ballard is the heart of the story. “At their core, they’re really about people who are relentless at what they do. Most viewers who watch these shows do not solve murders, but they have to connect somehow with these people who solve murders, and I think it’s on their character levels and levels of resilience and fierceness,” he explains. “Those connect both shows. You can ascribe that to the character of Bosch just as much as you can Ballard, and I think that’s probably one of the rails that connect the two shows.” Season 1 of Ballard is available to stream on Prime Video now.

Ballard

Release Date

July 9, 2025

Network

Prime Video

Directors

Jet Wilkinson