The Shield: Would Shawn Ryan Like to Revisit the FX Series?

Could The Shield make a comeback? Recently, creator Shawn Ryan spoke with Entertainment Weekly about possibly revisiting the FX series.

The cop drama starred Michael Chiklis as Detective Vic Mackey, the leader of a corrupt LAPD unit dubbed the “Strike Team.” The cast also included Catherine Dent, Walton Goggins, Michael Jace, Jay Karnes, Benito Martinez, CCH Pounder, Cathy Cahlin Ryan, and David Rees Snell. The series ran on FX for seven seasons before ending in 2008.

In honor of the show’s 15th anniversary, Ryan spoke with EW about the origin and legacy of The Shield. When asked if he’d be interested in a reboot, Ryan said it was “tricky”:

It’s interesting, Jay Karnes and Michael Chiklis were over at our house [Ryan’s wife Cathy Cahlin Ryan played Vic’s ex-wife Corrine] a week ago, so it turned into a lot of reminiscing. We’ve all sort of worked and we’ve all enjoyed things we’ve done, but The Shield was a singular pleasure to do. To me, it’s hard not to want to recapture that feeling we all had when we were making the show. But nostalgia is a tricky thing. You’d also like the feel the nostalgia of being back in college or when you first feel in love with your wife.

I was reading an interview with Joss Whedon about the 20th anniversary of Buffy, and he addressed this a little bit and I agree — you can’t recreate the time and experience of first seeing it. I’m of two minds: Something that would bring me back to all those friends, feelings, and the freedom we had making the show — I would love. I do think the ending is such a high bar and I would only come back if I thought we could beat that or exceed that, and I honestly don’t know if we could. Artistically, I’m in the camp of leaving it there.”

However, Ryan did say that there is always the possibility of more:

There was a time a few years after The Shield ended, where I was having some talks with Fox’s movie division about something Shield-related. I had a pitch and what intrigued me about that pitch is that for the first 30 to 40 minutes of the movie, you wouldn’t meet anyone from The Shield universe. Then, at a certain point, Vic Mackey comes in to the main character’s world. That to me at least felt like I wasn’t just trying to make two more episodes of The Shield, it felt like something new and different that could stand on its own and wouldn’t detract from the show’s legacy. For various reasons, that never happened and now, any momentum for that is probably gone. I never want to close the door to it continuing in some way, but I never want to give unnecessary hope to the fans. I don’t know what the future holds. I’ve never definitively decided what Vic Mackey is doing now. As a fan of The Shield, I am interested in seeing that.”

What do you think?  Did you watch The Shield? Would you watch a reboot or revival?