Credit: Netflix

Looks like Netflix has more mood swings than Ross Geller during the whole “we were on a break” arc, because what do you mean it announced The Lincoln Lawyer was ending earlier this year, and is now already talking about a spin-off? Pick a lane, mate. Or actually, don’t, because this could get interesting.

Mickey Haller might be building goodbye after season five of The Lincoln Lawyer, but Netflix is apparently nowhere near ready to bin his world altogether. And the person who could inherit the whole thing is Cobie Smulders.

The How I Met Your Mother and MCU star appeared as Artemisia ‘Emi’ Finch at the end of season four and was introduced as Mickey’s half-sister, and she’s not just now been promoted to series regular for season five but is also getting a whole new show on her own. That was fast.

She comes to Mickey asking for help with a woman she believes has been wrongly convicted, which drops her straight into the season’s central legal battle.

Surprisingly, Emi does not exist in Michael Connelly’s books. Netflix created her for the series, and that also gives the show a way around the awkward fact that Mickey’s half-brother, Harry Bosch, cannot appear because of separate screen rights. That was some headache.

But apparently, introducing her was only step one.

A Smulders-led spin-off centred on Emi is now in fast-track development, with executive producers Ted Humphrey, Dailyn Rodriguez and Matthew J Lieberman writing the script and A+E Studios producing.

The idea had reportedly been floating around even before Netflix confirmed season five would be the last, and the pitch went well enough for the platform to request a script quickly.

But hold your horses because the series has not been greenlit yet; deals are still being worked out, and Netflix has kept mum for now.

Still, if everything comes together, Mickey Haller may leave the courtroom only for his half-sister to pick up the case file. Isn’t that exciting?