Titus Welliver on transitioning from Bosch to its spinoff: "I hesitate to say the word 'spinoff' because it’s not really a spinoff"

Vulture

Welliver was filming the final season of the Amazon police series when he was informed of the IMDb TV "continuation" of his Harry Bosch character. "We were 100 percent focused on completing our series, during the pandemic," he tells Vulture. "It was this very odd thing of feeling melancholy, having all worked so hard for so many years together and being excited about going back to work, but also very trepidatious and somewhat fearful. Amazon took the time and money to put together a team of COVID producers and epidemiologists to protect us and put these protocols in place so that we not only were safe but also felt safe. Still, it was completely antithetical to the way you work — there was no social intercourse, which is a huge part of the process of shooting a film or television show. Everybody was kind of isolated, so you ran in and pulled your mask down when they said 'action,' then pulled it back up when they said 'cut.' We didn’t really have all that much time to think, so that when I got the initial call, which was, 'Hey, we’re considering continuing the show but in a different format,' I, of course, was very excited but still going, Well, what does that entail? I wasn’t really able to stop in that moment and absorb that idea. With the new show, Madison Lintz, Mimi Rogers, and myself are the only existing characters from the original Bosch. I hesitate to say the word 'spinoff' because it’s not really a spinoff —  it’s a continuation of the Harry Bosch saga. He’s still the same guy, just in a different place in his life. Maddie and Harry’s relationship really evolved into being very much at the forefront, the pulse and the heart of the show, so it makes perfect sense in the evolution of the narrative."