Max Thieriot, star, co-creator and executive producer of Fire Country and co-creator/executive producer of spinoff Sheriff Country, has signed a first-look deal with the studio behind the CBS series, CBS Studios.
Thieriot has been with CBS/CBS Studios since he was cast as the lead in the military drama SEAL Team in 2017, moving to Fire Country after its pilot was picked to become the most-watched series of the 2022-23 season.
“I’ve been with CBS and CBS Studios for almost 10 years and I love the people there,” Thieriot said. “They really are like family at this point, and that’s one of the most important things about this business to me. From the beginning, they believed in me and supported me, helping me find the best people to be involved with.”
That support included Thieriot branching out into directing for SEAL Team and then writing and producing for Fire Country, inspired by his personal experiences growing up in Sonoma County, CA.
“I’ve always been a storyteller,” Thieriot says, recalling running around the house as a kid taking videos of his friends on a bulky VHS tape recorder.
His first TV series was Bates Motel, where he was a regular cast member, and he began his directing career, playing a supporting role in the short-lived series Texas Rising during its hiatus. He then moved directly to SEAL Team.
“Throughout my career, I’ve always wanted to learn, grow, and find ways to express that creativity,” Thieriot says. “For me, directing was a big thing at first, after acting for a while and reading so many scripts and seeing so many different worlds, I thought, why not try this writing thing and see what I can do here.”
Building a brand from scratch Thieriot co-created Fire Country with veteran showrunners Tony Phelan and Joan Rater (Grey’s Anatomy) through CBS Studios-based Jerry Bruckheimer Television, working closely with the company’s CEO KristieAnne Reed.
“Fire Country was a big turning point for me in terms of producing and writing,” Thieriot said, revealing her lofty ambitions from the start. “I feel like I’m one of those people who always puts the cart before the horse a little bit. I think before it aired, I tried to come up with four side ideas.”
The horse has already caught up with the cart — as Fire Country heads into its third season, it already has a spinoff series greenlit, Sheriff County, starring Morena Baccarin, for whom Thieriot directed the secret Fire Country pilot from a script he co-wrote with Phelan and Rater. A potential second spinoff, starring Jared Padalecki, is being teased in a guest spot on Fire Country this season.
“We’re so excited about Sheriff Country, Morena is incredible,” Thieriot says of the series, which is set to debut in the 2025-26 season. “We’ve assembled a really incredible [writers] room, I was talking to Joan and Tony the other day, and they were there working with [showrunner] Matt Lopez. I couldn’t be more excited that that show is coming.”
It’s not yet clear whether Thieriot will appear in Sheriff Country as Bode, but both shows take place in the same universe so a crossover is possible, the only hurdle being logistics since Fire Country is filmed in Vancouver and Sheriff Country in Toronto.
As for a potential Padalecki branch, “we’ll see where it goes, I think it’s too early to have any real updates on that front,” Thieriot said. “But I think we all feel like Fire Country is something that can be a franchise. And the most important people who believe in it are George [Cheeks] and Amy [Reisenbach] and David [Stapf] and everyone there.”
Thieriot wouldn’t reveal whether Gabriela and Diego will get married, but did confirm that “there’s going to be a helicopter crash in the Season 3 premiere, which will cause a little bit of chaos in the community, the whole town. Everyone there is going to have to pitch in, roll up their sleeves, and get dirty and bloody.”
He also teased the theme of the new firefighter film.
“In Parts 1 and 2, we really focused on Bode’s redemption and him mending those relationships and trying to rebuild,” he said. “Part 3 is about legacy. We see Bode driven by his desire to become a firefighter and continue that dream and carry on the Leone family legacy. A big part of that journey is, how does he do that? How does he achieve those goals and become a firefighter, and what are the obstacles that stand in his way?”
Thieriot has been busy filming Fire Country since the SEAL Team series finale aired on Paramount+ a week ago, but he’s looking forward to seeing the film as soon as he gets the chance.
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