EXCLUSIVE: The Lincoln Lawyer is eying a franchise expansion at Netflix with a spinoff series headlined by Cobie Smulders, reprising her role as Mickey Haller’s half-sister Artemisia “Emi” Finch, Deadline has learned. The script is being written by The Lincoln Lawyer executive producers Ted Humphrey, Dailyn Rodriguez and Matthew J. Lieberman, with A+E Studios producing.

Chatter about an Emi spinoff started percolating even before Netflix announced in May that Season 5 of The Lincoln Lawyer will be its last. Humphrey, Rodriguez and Lieberman spent some time honing in the concept and recently pitched it to Netflix, I hear. According to sources, it was well received, with the streamer buying the project in the room and commissioning a script for a quick turnaround.

As has been case with the mothership series starring Manuel Garcia Rulfo, the idea is to film in Los Angeles if the spinoff, like its predecessor, qualifies for a California tax credit.

A green light for the offshoot is also believed to be contingent on closing deals with all key auspices, a process that is ongoing.

A rep for Netflix declined comment.

Emi was introduced at the end of Season 4, with Smulders promoted to a series regular in Season 5.

In the upcoming Season 5, Mickey Haller’s (Rulfo) world is upended when the half-sister he never knew existed, Emi (Smulders), comes to him with a plea to help free a wrongfully convicted woman, a case he takes on, determined to set right an enormous miscarriage of justice.

Emi is an original character who is not in Michael Connelly’s books, on which The Lincoln Lawyer is based. She fills a void in Mickey’s family dynamic caused at least in part by his half-brother Harry Bosch not being in the picture due to the rights to the character being owned by Amazon. With Mickey’s half-brother having headlined his own series on Prime Video, it is only fitting for his sister to do the same on Netflix.

The Lincoln Lawyer, from A+E Studios, is executive produced by creator David E. Kelley, developer/co-showrunner Humphrey, Connelly, co-showrunner Rodriguez, Ross Fineman, Matthew J. Lieberman, Barry Jossen and Tana Jamieson.

Netflix estimates that the first four seasons have contributed over $425 million to the California economy, employed over 4,300 cast and crew, and filmed at more than 50 different locations across Los Angeles. The series has appeared on the Netflix Global Top 10 charts for 29 weeks to date and has garnered 171 million views since 2023. Its most recent fourth season launched with 9M views for its opening weekend, which is actually up over the third season’s debut performance (7M).

In addition to her role on The Lincoln Lawyer, How I Met Your Mother and MCU alumna Smulders also has been recurring on Apple TV’s Shrinking. She is repped by UTA and Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman. Humphrey is repped by WME, Industry Entertainment and Hansen Jacobson Teller. Rodriguez is repped by Rothman Brecher Ehrich Livingston and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.

Shares in Lionsgate extended their losses Wednesday after an activist investor expressed restlessness with the company’s stance on AI.

On above-average trading volume, the stock ended the day at $11.73, down 1% to its lowest level since April. It fell 4% on Tuesday when news of the activist’s agenda first surfaced. The stock is up 28% in 2026 to date, though it has shed 13% of its value over the past month.

While the use of AI in the filmmaking process remains a delicate topic in Hollywood, Wall Street has a more straightforwardly Darwinian view. Anson Funds, which has been one of the five largest independent shareholders in Lionsgate since 2024, believes the company needs to take a more aggressive stance at the risk of becoming obsolete.

“The rise of generative AI has led the market to sort companies bluntly into ‘AI winners’ and ‘AI losers,’” the investment firm wrote to Lionsgate’s board in July. Negative stock movement in the wake of the release of new AI video models like Sora and Seedance, it asserted, “reflects a default market assumption that a studio is more likely to be an AI casualty than an AI beneficiary.”

The letter’s contents were confirmed to Deadline by multiple people with knowledge of Anson’s overture. The board approach was first reported by Semafor.

In an apparent response to the letter, Lionsgate on Wednesday updated a slide deck of the company’s “core tenets.” A company spokesperson did not respond to Deadline’s request for comment.

Lionsgate, compared with many of its peers in the film and TV business, has been fairly active on the AI front. The company recently renewed an agreement with Runway, which it joined forces with in 2024 with an eye toward expenses. Vice Chairman Michael Burns, appearing at a media industry conference in June, said AI would save the company “tens and tens of millions of dollars a year” in production costs.

Earlier this year, Lionsgate also hired former YouTube exec Kathleen Grace as its first Chief AI Officer.

Anson Funds says the company needs to go far beyond those initiatives. One source familiar with the firm’s letter to the Lionsgate board said it argued that AI filmmaking tools are essentially becoming commodities with professional benefits akin to those resulting from a corporate worker asking ChatGPT to proofread a memo. As AI becomes more ubiquitous, the onus is on Lionsgate to articulate a more specific strategy, the firm contends.

Since finalizing a split from Starz last year, Lionsgate has been seen as a desirable acquisition target. European players Banijay and Mediawan were reportedly taking a closer look. After methodically growing its business over nearly three decades and doing periodic tuck-in acquisitions, Lionsgate has assembled 20,000 film and TV titles in its library, which topped $1 billion in revenue in the most recent fiscal year. Its stable also includes notable franchises like Power, Hunger Games, John Wick and Saw.

Lionsgate’s quarterly earnings report last week was highlighted by the success of Michael, the company’s first billion-dollar grossing film, as well as ancillary proceeds from The Housemaid, a holiday season blockbuster.

Asked by analysts during a conference call about strategic possibilities including being acquired, execs said they have not held “substantive discussions.” But execs have spoken informally to banks about their options, though the company hasn’t formally retained a banker, generally a key early step in an M&A process.

The timing would be good for Lionsgate if it chooses to entertain offers, Anson maintained in the letter.

“Amazon’s acquisition of MGM, Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and the recent, hard-fought contest between Netflix and Ellison-backed Paramount Skydance for Warner Bros. Discovery all demonstrate that technology and streaming players are already willing to acquire premium IP rather than simply license it,” the firm wrote.

The fourth season of Apple TV‘s Ted Lasso just premiered, and executive Eddy Cue is hopeful that more seasons are possible.

It was believed that after the first three seasons, the Jason Sudeikis-starring comedy series had naturally concluded. However, the creative team regrouped to pave a new path for the beloved character.

In an interview with Screen Rant, Cue said that Season 4 of the comedy series is “good enough” to warrant a fifth season.

“I hope so,” Cue told the publication about renewing the show for Season 5. “It’s certainly good enough for that. So I think there’s plenty of stories to go on. We’ll show up. No worries.”

In 2025, Deadline reported that the Ted Lasso core cast, which includes Sudeikis, Juno Temple, Brendan Hunt, Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein, and Jeremy Swift, was “believed to have a three-year” deal, meaning that they could potentially make a run for three more seasons.

Ted Lasso Season 4 is rolling out weekly, starting August 5. Every Wednesday, a new episode will drop on Apple TV until the finale set for October 7.

The new season sees Ted return to Richmond, taking on his biggest challenge yet: coaching a second-division women’s football team. Throughout the season, Ted and the team learn to leap before they look, taking chances they never thought they would.

New cast members include Tanya Reynolds, Jude Mack, Faye Marsay, Rex Hayes, Aisling Sharkey, Abbie Hern and Grant Feely.

Ted Lasso Season 4 added Jack Burditt as executive producer. Sudeikis stars and executive-produces alongside Hunt, Joe Kelly, Jane Becker, Jamie Lee, and Bill Wrubel. Goldstein serves as writer and executive producer alongside Leann Bowen. Sarah Walker and Phoebe Walsh serve as writers and producers for season four, and Sasha Garron co-produces.