Matt Dinerstein/NBC

What do Law & Order and Chicago Justice have in common? Recently, co-creator Dick Wolf and showrunner Michael S. Chernuchin spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the upcoming NBC series.

Part of Wolf’s Chicago franchise, the legal drama follows the State Attorney’s “dedicated team of prosecutors and investigators navigate heated city politics and controversy head-on, while fearlessly pursuing justice.” The cast includes Philip Winchester, Carl Weathers, Monica Barbaro, and former Chicago PD star Jon Seda.

In the interview, Chernuchin said Chicago Justice is inspired by Dick Wolf’s most notable creation, Law & Order:

Basically, I wanted to bring back Law & Order. I wanted grounded, things that could really happen, problems that really arise. And Dick said, ‘That’s exactly it. I want Law & Order but different.'”

Later, EP Peter Jankowski revealed Philip Winchester’s character in Chicago Justice is the son of original Law & Order prosecutor Ben Stone (Michael Moriarty):

“It felt natural. When we cast Philip, the idea going in wasn’t to make that character Ben Stone’s son but as we saw it develop and we saw the actor, it made sense.”

Chernuchin explained how the Law & Order connection influenced Winchester’s character:

Because we had make the connection to his father, then I thought, ‘OK, what do kids with famous fathers do?’ They reject them. So he did the thing as far from being a lawyer and an intellectual as he could: He became an athlete. You always go home and do what you’re genetically disposed to or psychologically disposed to do. But he brings that same athletic competitiveness to the courtroom.”

Jankowski also mentioned that Chicago Justice will focus more on the issues:

This one is a bit more self-contained with a beginning, middle and end. It centers a little bit less on the soap opera, a little bit more on tackling issues. How do you look at an issue in this case from five different points of view when every one of them is right? Hopefully, there’s an honesty to that.”

Chicago Justice premieres as part of a crossover episode beginning tonight, March 1st, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.

What do you think? Are you a fan of Dick Wolf’s Chicago series? Will you watch Chicago Justice?