Donnie Wahlberg isn’t ready to close the door on Blue Bloods just yet.
In November, CBS announced that the long-running crime drama would conclude with its 14th season as its last, but Wahlberg, 54, doesn’t seem to be on the same page.
When asked by Andy Cohen on SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live about the show’s final season, Wahlberg said it was “allegedly” the last, as he hinted at the possibilities to come for his character.
“Potentially,” he teased of whether season 14 is Blue Bloods’ last. “There are rumblings, so we’ll see what happens.”
Wahlberg, who plays Det. Danny Reagan, the son of NYPD Commissioner Francis “Frank” Reagan (Tom Selleck), called the show’s 14-year run “absolutely crazy.”
“It’s beloved,” he said of the series, before Cohen, 55, asked his New Kids on the Block bandmates — who were also appearing on the radio show — for their thoughts.
Jordan Knight joked that there’ll be “a Donnie spinoff” after Blue Bloods ends, which prompted Cohen to ask why none of the other NKOTB members have made cameos on the show.
“I’ve been trying,” Wahlberg insisted, before sharing that he’s particularly keen to get Joey McIntyre on the show.
“It’s a no-brainer for Joey to do it and I’m sure he’d be willing if there was a good part, but it just hasn’t been the right thing. But our executive producer said, ‘If this is the last year, is there a bucket list item you want?’ I said, ‘Yes. Get freaking Joey on the show because you told me you were gonna get him on the show a decade ago and we’re still waiting,’ so we’ll see.”
Having McIntyre appear is a “bucket list” item for Wahlberg, but the Waitress alum, 51, didn’t sound quite as enthused.
“I don’t know. If he has to take my face and put it up against a car window or something like that. You know what I mean? We gotta have some soft boundaries around the role.”
Wahlberg then offered another potential plotline for his bandmate. “The story line could be like, you come and are a love interest to my partner and I get jealous or whatever.”
Until now, getting McIntyre on the show has been like “ships in the night,” he said. “Sometimes you go, ‘There was a thing. You should have been cast for this thing that just happened.’”
Wahlberg shared one such story: “They cast a friend of his like two months ago. He was like, ‘Yeah, I’m friends with Joey.’ I’m like, ‘Why are you doing this part? It should be Joey.’ ”
Wahlberg, who has been on Blue Bloods since its inception in 2010, recently recalled the feeling of getting cast on the show — and how he felt about playing Selleck’s son on screen.
“I got hired on the show and [Tom] was really excited, cause he was a fan of Band of Brothers, so he was like ‘Oh yeah, this guy’s good,’” Wahlberg said on an episode of the Brotherly Love podcast. “But I walked in the room and he’s like 6’4, I’m like 5’11” I think.”
“So I walk in, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, he’s got so much hair, his eyebrows are so bushy.’ I didn’t even care about the mustache,” he said. “I was like, ‘How am I this dude’s son?’ I was like, ‘They’re gonna fire me tomorrow.’ ”
But after that moment of apprehension, Wahlberg met Len Cariou, who plays his grandfather Henry Reagan in the series, and felt much more at ease. “He’s shorter than me, same hairline,” he quipped. “I was like, ‘Alright, I got his genes. I’m good.’”
Blue Bloods airs on Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.