Since seven seasons of The Rookie have aired to date, fans of the hit TV show drama have seen a lot happen. For example, fans who know what goes on behind-the-scenes of The Rookie and how painful filming the show can be have seen a popular character disappear. Given all the incredible things that have happened on The Rookie, many fans want to know everything that has been revealed about the show’s upcoming eighth season.

Even though there has been a disappointing update about The Rookie Season 8, many fans are still very excited for the show to return. However, if The Rookie’s producers want Season 8 to be great, there are several characters that should never return.

Why Elijah Stone Should Never Return To The Rookie

Before touching on any of the characters from The Rookie who shouldn’t return, it is important to make one thing clear. None of the characters this article will touch on are included because it is the fault of the actors who brought them to life. Instead, it is the role that the characters this article will touch on played during The Rookie that makes them leaving the show forever a must.

A perfect example of that is Elijah Stone since Brandon Jay McLaren did a fantastic job bringing the character to life. The reason why Elijah shouldn’t show up on The Rookie again is because the character was a drag whenever he popped up.

When The Rookie fans talk about the show’s best characters, Angela Lopez almost always comes up quickly. A truly fantastic character who is loved by the show’s viewers, fans don’t want to see Angela messed with in a way that makes her incapable of being the bada** fans know her to be.

While he isn’t as awesome as Angela, Wesley Evers is still a great character that fans don’t want to see in a position to potentially lose his career or life.

Whenever he showed up during episodes of The Rookie, Elijah forced Angela and Wesley into uncomfortable positions. Worse yet, the drama that Elijah added to Wesley and Angela’s lives also felt like a distraction from what fans love about those characters.

On top of everything else, Elijah never felt like a threat on the level of a character like Rosalind Dyer. Since Elijah wasn’t creepy like Rosalind was, his character also didn’t really feel dangerous. Instead, Elijah felt like a headache that wouldn’t go away.

Given the effect that Elijah had on the show, his character should never appear again.

Why Seth Ridley Should Never Return To The Rookie

Another example of an actor who did a great job on The Rookie, Patrick Keleher embodied Seth Ridley to perfection. Despite how great he was in the role, Seth should never return to The Rookie.

From the moment that Seth was introduced as a new rookie officer, he seemed like he was going to be a handful. However, there was no way for viewers to know how big of a problem Seth would become for his training officer, Lucy Chen.

Relatively quickly revealed to be duplicitous, Seth clearly couldn’t be trusted to tell the truth or take responsibility for his actions. Despite that, fans saw Seth remain as a part of the training program far longer than he should have been able to.

While excuses for Seth’s longevity were introduced, like him lying about having cancer, it seemed like his tricks should have failed him earlier. Most notably, it seemed like Tim Bradford should have exposed Seth much earlier. After all, Tim and Lucy almost died in a horrible fire because of Seth’s incompetence, yet he didn’t look into the young officer’s obviously fake cover story about that incident.

After fans saw many episodes of Seth’s lies and deception, many viewers grew to hate the character. On top of that, it seems like all the storyline possibilities that Seth added to the show were wrung out.

As a result, any attempt to bring Seth back to The Rookie would feel like a frustrating step backward for the show.

Why Fiona Ryan Should Never Return To The Rookie

When The Rookie fans discuss their least favorite characters from the show, Fiona Ryan almost always comes up. While some of the complaints about Fiona as a character are very divisive, there are other reasons why the character shouldn’t be brought back to The Rookie anytime soon.

The first reason why Fiona shouldn’t return to The Rookie is that her character doesn’t fit the show in two important ways.

Most notably, everything about Fiona as a character screams that she should be spending her time in a classroom or taking part in debates. As a result, it always felt off when Fiona interacted more with the police or wound up in danger, like when she cowered under a car as people sought to take her life.

Secondly, and more importantly, there is no obvious storyline reason why Fiona would appear on the show again. Now that John Nolan doesn’t need to take her class anymore, forcing Fiona back on the show would feel random at best.

The biggest reason why Fiona shouldn’t return to The Rookie at this point is that the show doesn’t need her to move storylines forward. Since Fiona left The Rookie, problems with policing, especially when it involves minorities, have continued to be a part of the show’s discourse.

While some viewers may want that topic covered more, one of the show’s other characters that fans are more invested in could serve the role that Fiona once did. Since James Murray has all the same concerns as Fiona once did, and he’s married to Nyla Harper, he can push forward any storylines that Fiona could have been involved in.

Why Monica Stevens should Be Permanently Written Out Of The Rookie

A July 2025 TVLine article reports that The Rookie Season 8 will feature scenes filmed in Prague that will feature Bridget Regan portraying Monica Stevens. Since it is clear that Monica will appear in The Rookie more, this article can’t argue she shouldn’t return.

Instead, this article will argue that Monica’s The Rookie Season 8 storyline should permanently write the character out.

As an actor, it is hard to imagine how Bridget could do a better job of making Monica feel evil. However, the problem with Monica as a character is the fact that her storyline is annoying and really hard to believe even in a show as fantastical as The Rookie can be.

When Monica was introduced, she was simply a lawyer who was willing to cross lines. However, since then, Monica has become an international supercriminal after a sudden rise to power that felt far too easy for her. Considering most fans are bothered by how evil Monica is and that her rise to power is a stretch that is too hard to believe, it would be better if she went away.