NBC is bringing back The Rockford Files, and the first thing you need to know is that nobody involved wanted to just redo it.
That came up almost immediately during NBCUniversal’s Backlot Pass 2026 panel for the new pilot. The car is back. The Los Angeles setting is back. The iconic Jim Rockford energy is back. There will even be Easter eggs and callbacks for longtime fans, including Angel. But the creative team was adamant they were not chasing a shot-for-shot remake.
Smart move, honestly. The second you try to go apples to apples with something people grew up loving, you have already lost.
“I think you can kind of get in trouble with people who are sentimental with the original,” executive producer Mike Daniels said during the panel. “It just becomes a comparison who is the actor they remember loving as a kid and who’s the actor playing it now.”
So instead of copying plot beats, the team chased a feeling. Daniels said the two things fans of the original remembered most were not specific storylines. It was James Garner himself and how watching the show made them feel.
The words they used were simple: “fun,” “exciting,” and “cool.”
That is the thing they are actually trying to rebuild.
Enter David Boreanaz, who says the role landed on him almost by accident.
“I wasn’t looking to play Jim Rockford in The Rockford Files,” Boreanaz said. “It came to me as a gift.”
He had been up for something else that fell through, and Rockford showed up instead. Which, fine, normal Hollywood story. Except then he mentioned that his mom told him he needed to play a James Garner type back when he started Bones.
“My mother said, ‘David, you need to play something of Jim Garner. You have to. You look just like him,'” Boreanaz recalled.
And here we are. I do not know what to do with that except assume his mom was right about basically everything.
He Called Gigi Garner Before He Said Yes
This is the part of the panel that actually got me.
Before Boreanaz would fully commit to the role, he reached out to Gigi Garner, James Garner’s daughter, to ask for her blessing.
He had known her years earlier after purchasing a pinball machine connected to her father and the film Maverick, but they had lost touch. When The Rockford Files came his way, Boreanaz said he felt like he had to find her again. He dug up an old email from about 15 years ago, sent a message not really knowing what would happen, and she replied.
Still had the same AOL account, apparently, which is its own small miracle.
Boreanaz told her he was not going to imitate her father.
“What your father did is iconic and he’s already climbed that mountaintop,” he said. “I aspire to do the same with this character, but I’m not imitating him.”
His whole pitch to her was simpler than that.
“I just want to make your dad proud,” Boreanaz said.
That is it. He hung up the phone, went for a swim, and said he felt like Garner was with them on set. Whether or not you buy into that kind of thing, it is a nice way to walk into a role that a lot of people are going to be protective of.
Also worth noting, Boreanaz said he had never actually watched the original Rockford Files. He described himself as more of a Six Million Dollar Man and Charlie’s Angels guy. So whatever channeling is happening here is not from studying old episodes. It is apparently genetics, instinct, and vibes, which is a wild thing to hear an actor say about a legacy role and also somehow makes total sense once you hear him say it.
The Pilot Opens With Him Getting Out of Jail, and He Is Thrilled About It
Here is the part that tells you the writers actually thought about this instead of just cashing a nostalgia check.
The pilot picks up with Jim Rockford newly paroled after doing time for a crime he did not commit. He returns to life as a private investigator in Los Angeles, using his charm and wit to solve cases, but his quest for legitimacy quickly puts him in the crosshairs of both local police and organized crime.
The obvious version of that story is a revenge plot. Angry guy, chip on his shoulder, out for blood.
That is not what they did.
“I feel like the typical thing would have been he’s angry about it. He wants revenge,” Daniels explained. “What we really show was a guy who’s just thrilled to be reentering life.”
He is popping Oreos in one scene because he missed them. He tracks down a taco because he missed that too.
“So he’s popping Oreos in one scene, and he’s found a way to get a taco in another scene,” Daniels said.
World-weary, sore, a little grumpy, but still a guy who genuinely likes being alive. That is a much more interesting note than “angry ex-con seeks payback,” and it tracks with everything else they said about wanting the tone to feel like the original, not the plot.
This Rockford Gets Knocked Around
It also lines up with the physical side of the role, which Boreanaz was refreshingly honest about.
Daniels described this version of Rockford as “a little beat up.” His back hurts. His knees hurt. He has been in jail. He can fight when he has to, but this is not a guy looking to punch his way through every problem.
“There’s a vulnerability that David really leans into for Rockford,” Daniels said. “He feels like an everyman who’s up against it.”
After years of playing characters who can handle themselves physically, Boreanaz seems excited about a Rockford who gets his ass kicked in the pilot and actually feels it.
There is also a driving stunt in the pilot that sounds exactly like the kind of thing Rockford should be doing and exactly like the kind of thing a human body should complain about later. The script called for him to change seats while the car was moving down the highway.
“My hip did not appreciate that at the time,” Boreanaz admitted.
He felt it the next day, got through it anyway, and honestly, that is basically the whole character in one anecdote.
The Car Is Back, Too
You cannot talk about The Rockford Files without talking about the car.
Boreanaz, who called himself a gearhead, said he came to understand the importance of the Pontiac Firebird Esprit while shooting the pilot. He also revealed that production had access to two of the original vehicles, which made filming car material on Pacific Coast Highway a pretty major moment for him.
“I love doing car sequences,” Boreanaz said. “I love driving.”
Again, this is where the reboot seems to understand the assignment. The car is not just fan service. It is part of the Rockford rhythm: the case, the drive, the escape, the bad idea that somehow becomes the only idea.
Los Angeles Still Matters
Beyond the pilot, the creative team is planning to dig into why this guy has never settled down, what is going on with his relationships, and some unresolved grief involving his father that will sit with him across the season instead of getting tidied up in one episode.
Daniels said the show will still have a mystery-of-the-week structure, but modern television gives them room to “pop the hood” on Rockford a little more than the original could.
The series is also shooting in California, because apparently nobody seriously considered filming The Rockford Files anywhere else.
As they should.
Daniels said the goal is to make the show a love letter to Los Angeles, just like the original, but with a modern view of the city. He pointed to neighborhoods like Sun Valley, Venice, and Baldwin Hills as examples of how different L.A. can feel depending on where the story takes you.
That matters for The Rockford Files. The city is not just background. It is part of the case, part of the mood, and part of the charm.
Not a Remake, a Reintroduction
So, not a straight remake. Not an attempt to out-Garner James Garner. Not a nostalgia project pretending it invented something new.
This version of The Rockford Files sounds more like a reintroduction: a wrongly convicted private investigator trying to rebuild his life, solve cases across Los Angeles, eat the food he missed, drive the car fans remember, and carry just enough grief and soreness to make the charm hit differently.
David Boreanaz needed his mom’s old prediction, James Garner’s daughter’s blessing, and maybe a sore hip to get there.
Honestly, that feels about right.
When to Watch
The Rockford Files premieres January 2027 on NBC, with an exact date to be announced.