At theSan Diego Comic-Conpanel forThe Rookie,ScreenRant’sRachel Foertsch was on hand for the fan questions posed to showrunner Alexi Hawley and star Nathan Fillion, including one about a potential guest star for the series. The series has featured great guest stars in the past, like Alan Tudyk and Bridget Regan.
Nathan Fillion
During the fan Q&A portion of the panel, however, one fan was curious about whether the show could getNeil Patrick Harrison as a guest star - as a villain. Harris is best known today for his role as Barney Stinson onHow I Met Your Mother, but he is a prolific TV actor and a friend of Fillion’s.
Fillion is on board to get Harris to guest-star on the show. He even joked that Harris owes him money, so he could potentially make the villain stint happen.
Nathan Fillion & Neil Patrick Harris Have Worked Together Twice Before
Fillion & Harris Have Teamed Up In Genre Shows
Nathan Fillion and Neil Patrick Harris have worked together in the past, but the projects were very different fromThe Rookie. One project is a family streaming series, while the other is a musical web series.
Thefirst project the two starred in together was the web seriesDr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. It chronicled the conflict between aspiring supervillain Dr. Horrible (Harris) and the egotistical hero who gets in his way, Captain Hammer (Fillion).
The web series became a viral hit, serving as a genre-bending success. Joss, Jed, and Zack Whedon developed the series alongside Jed Whedon’s future wife, Maurissa Tancharoen. It examined similar themes to superhero stories, but flipped the script on who was really the villain and who was really the hero.
The Rookieseason 8 will appear on ABC in early 2026.
The two also appeared inNetflix’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events. Harris starred in the series as the villainous Count Olaf, who was after the fortune of three orphaned siblings. Fillion appeared in the series as Jacques Snicket, a member of the Volunteer Fire Department who attempts to track the orphans.
Neil Patrick Harris Playing A Villain In The Rookie Would Continue A Strange Trend In Their Careers
Harris Is Always Fillion’s Antagonist
Harris and Fillion might be friends in real life, but the two have not played friends on camera - yet. Instead, the two always play characters on opposite ends of the same conflict. Specifically,Harris is the villain to Fillion’s hero.
While Fillion is known for playing rogueish heroes on television, fromFireflytoCastle, he does not always play characters with that rogueish swagger. In fact, his roles opposite Harris do not see him as that character type. Jacques is a bit more of a straight arrow, and Captain Hammer’s huge ego is his defining characteristic.
Harris might be best known for his more comedic role asHow I Met Your Mother’sBarney, but neither of his villains isplaybook-wielding womanizers like Barney. Instead, Olaf is insecure and fueled by his greed and anger. Dr. Horrible wants to be important instead of invisible, and he sees supervillainy as a path to that.
…playing opposite one another inThe Rookiecould certainly prove to be a fun evolution of their acting work together.
Both times that Harris and Fillion have teamed up have allowed them to play very different charactersfrom the ones audiences are used to seeing them as today, and playing opposite one another inThe Rookiecould certainly prove to be a fun evolution of their acting work together.
Harris has been saying for over a decade that he wouldlove to appear in aDr. Horriblesequel, but that ship has likely sailed. Appearing as a villain inThe Rookiecould be a nice way to replicate Harris’s enjoyment of playing the villain.
If Fillion and Hawley are able to get Harris to appear onThe Rookie, the fans would be in for a treat.
