Nathan Fillion is loving life on the set of The Rookie. Back to shoot season seven, the actor – who plays John Nolan – took fans behind the scenes on Tuesday.

Standing on a rooftop, Nathan, 53, noted that he’s lived in LA for well over 25 years. “The city has changed a lot since then,” he said, “I guess that’s just a sign of The Times.” Leaving fans in hysterics, the star had executed the perfect pun, panning the camera onto the iconic Los Angeles Times headquarters.

Sparking a reaction in the comments, many commended Nathan on his sense of humor. “Gotta love Nathan and his dad jokes,” wrote one. “Nice to know even A-list actors make dad jokes,” added another.

Now that he’s returned to the set of The Rookie, Nathan has been treating fans to updates on Instagram. His last came on June 24, with the star noting that onlookers had been trying to discreetly film the cast and crew at work.

“I have learned that an excellent metric for how well a show is doing is the measure of shamelessness of looky-loos and paparazzi when on location,” Nathan jested on Instagram.

With season seven slated for release in January 2025, fans are desperate to learn more, but for the time being details are limited. What we do know is that the instalment will consist of 18 episodes, and this time the weekly schedule will go uninterrupted.

As for the plot, star Eric Winter has teased what’s to come. The actor, who plays Tim Bradford, opened up.

“I do know we’re gonna see Tim back in the field training rookies, which I think is what people always loved about Tim, I think people liked Metro Tim, but I think people do like training officer Tim, so we’ll get him back out in the field,” explained Eric.

“I think we’re going to see Tim and Lucy continue to learn how to navigate their feelings while being on the job.

“We’ll see them pick up in a place where they’ve shown that they care about each other and now they have to figure out, ‘can we give each other space to do our job and allow our feelings to stay in a safe place but not rush anything and hope one person doesn’t go astray?’”

Asked about his reaction to the January release date, Eric told: “I was very nervous at first I’ll be honest. I was bummed but then, I talked to a lot of people at the upfronts and it made perfect sense. I know how much of a priority The Rookie is to ABC and with this being an election year and a lot of time being devoted to those sorts of things, they’re trying to protect it.

“There would be too many gaps, and the fans don’t love that. So they’re really trying to put us in a lineup where we can give eight episodes in a row with no interruption and so I appreciate it for that reason.”