Jessica Alba To Star In NBC’s Gabrielle Union ‘Bad Boys’ Offshoot Pilot

In her return to series television almost two decades after a breakout starring turn in Fox’s Dark Angel, Jessica Alba has been tapped as the co-lead opposite Gabrielle Union in NBC’s untitled Bad Boys spinoff drama pilot.

Alba also will serve as an executive producer on the project, from Bad Boys movies’ producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Doug Belgrad, Primary Wave Entertainment and Sony Pictures TV. It centers on the Special Agent Syd Burnett character played by Union in 2003’s Bad Boys II.

In the NBC pilot, written by Brandon Margolis and Brandon Sonnier and directed by Anton Cropper, the free-spirited former DEA agent Burnett has a fresh start in her new job as an LAPD detective. She’s partnered with Nancy McKenna (Alba), a working mom who can’t help but look at Syd’s freedom with some grass-is-greener envy. These two have totally different lifestyles and approaches, but they both are at the top of their fields in this action-packed, character-driven procedural.

Alba’s Nancy McKenna joined the Army out of high school and spent most of the 2000s in Iraq and Afghanistan. Women weren’t allowed in combat, so she joined the military police to get closer to the action. McKenna is now a detective raising two preteen stepkids with her husband.

In addiction to Union, Alba joins previously cast Ernie Hudson, Zach Gilford & Duane Martin. She is executive producing alongside Union, Sonnier Margolis, Bruckheimer, Belgrad, Jonathan Littman, KristieAnne Reed, Jeff Gaspin and Jeff Morrone.

Alba was still a teenager when she was cast by James Cameron as the lead of his 2000 Fox series Dark Angel, which ran for two seasons. Since then, Alba has been focused on features, filming more than 25 films that have earned a combined box office total of over $800 million.  Alba, who is a founder of The Honest Company, is repped by CAA and 3 Arts.