EXCLUSIVE: 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 drama franchise, CBS Studios.

Thieriot has been in the CBS/CBS Studios fold since he was cast as a series regular on the 2017 military drama SEAL Team, transitioning to Fire Country after the pilot was picked up to series that went on to become the most watched freshman of the 2022-23 season.

“I’ve been working now with CBS and CBS Studios for almost 10 years, and have come to love everybody over there,” Thieriot said. “At this point they really are like family, and that for me is one of the most important things in this business. From the beginning, they believed in me and supported me, helping me along the way of finding the best people to be involved with.”That support included Thieriot’s expansion into directing on SEAL Team and subsequently into writing and producing with Fire Country, inspired by his personal experience growing up in Sonoma County, CA.

“I’ve always been a sort of a storyteller,” Thieriot said, recalling how he was running around the house as a little kid making videos of his friends with bulky VHS tape camcorders.

His first TV series was Bates Motel where he was a series regular and made his directorial debut, filming a co-starring role in the miniseries Texas Rising during a hiatus. He then transitioned straight into SEAL Team.

“Throughout my career, I’ve always wanted to learn and grow and find ways to express that creativity,” Thieriot said. “Directing for me was a big thing at first after acting for a period of time and then, having read so many scripts and seen so many different worlds, I thought, why not give this writing thing a shot and see what I can put together here.”

Building a franchise 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 as far as producing and writing,” Thieriot said, revealing his lofty ambitions from the get-go. “I feel like I’m one of those people that was always putting the cart before the horse a little bit. I think before it’d even aired, I was trying to pitch four spinoff ideas.”

The horse has caught up with the cart by now — as Fire Country is headed into its third season, it already has a greenlighted spinoff series, Sheriff County starring Morena Baccarin, whose backdoor pilot episode of Fire Country Thieriot directed from a script he’d co-written with Phelan and Rater. A second potential spinoff, starring Jared Padalecki, is being introduced in a guest arc on Fire Country this season.

“Sheriff Country we’re very excited about, Morena is incredible,” Thieriot said of the series, which is set to debut in 2025-26 season. “We’ve been assembling a really incredible [writers] room, I spoke with Joan and Tony the other day, and they’ve been over there working with [showrunner] Matt Lopez. I couldn’t be more excited for that show to be coming out.”

It is unclear yet whether Thieriot will appear on Sheriff Country as Bode but both shows live in the same universe so crossovers are likely, the only obstacle being logistical since Fire Country films in Vancouver and Sheriff Country in Toronto.