Nuyorican actres Luna Lauren Vélez has been killing it of late. Last year she was one of 15 Afro-Latina actresses we raved about. In the last year alone, she’s popped on the ABC crime drama How to Get Away with Murder and the film The First Purge. She also lent her voice to the now Oscar-winning animated feature Spider-Man: In the Spider-Verse. But audiences might be seeing her back on a weekly series as it’s just been announced she’s set to return to a role close to her heart.
Vélez will be reprising her role as detective Nina Moreno in a reboot of the Dick Wolf-produced cop drama New York Undercover for ABC. Running for four seasons starting in 1994, New York Undercover followed a group of NYPD officers navigating chronic crime and their own personal lives. The reboot would take place 20 years later with Moreno now retired but still having “ties to the unit.” Playing opposite her would be another show alum, Malik Yoba, who would also be playing his same character from the original series, J.C. Williams who would now be heading up the 4th Precinct. This is the second 1990s cop drama ABC is planning to bring back in some form, the other being the highly successful NYPD Blue.
It should be noted that this is only a pilot order. If the pilot is successful the network will greenlight it for a full series. Considering that this is the second cop drama they’re working with the odds are they’ll take one, but the question is which. It’s obvious they want a cop series and, best case scenario, they’ll just greenlight both. Either way it’ll be great to get Vélez back on the screen. Fingers crossed this works out.