Justin Hartley Is Bringing a Gritty Female FBI Agent to ABC and It Sounds Like Must-Watch TV
The procedural drama landscape on network television has no shortage of compelling crime fighters, but a new project in development at ABC is shaping up to feel genuinely distinct from the pack. The network is developing an adaptation of ‘A Forgotten Kill,’ a novel by Wall Street Journal bestselling author Isabella Maldonado, with the project set up at 20th Television. With a strong literary foundation and a killer creative team already attached, this one has the makings of a serious contender.
At the center of it all is a heroine worth knowing. FBI Special Agent Daniela “Dani” Vega was seventeen years old when her mother murdered her father, and her own damning eyewitness testimony sealed her mother’s fate. A decade later, she is starting to have doubts about what she actually saw. It is precisely that kind of layered personal history, threaded through a high-stakes procedural framework, that tends to separate the good crime dramas from the genuinely addictive ones.
The show’s premise draws from that same compelling source material. The series centers on ex-Army Ranger Dani Vega, a Nuyorican from the Lower East Side and a dauntless FBI agent whose specialty is breaking codes and detecting patterns. As part of a task force, Dani is partnered with NYPD Detective Mark Flint, and their clashing styles give them an edge in solving crimes while also exposing an undeniable chemistry. But the personal stakes are what truly set the show apart, as Dani is simultaneously haunted by a family tragedy that threatens both her career and her life.
Justin Hartley will executive produce through his overall deal at 20th Television via his Change Up Productions banner, with Diana Son set to write and executive produce the drama project. Ken Olin, who will also direct, and Maldonado herself round out the executive producer lineup. Son brings serious television credentials to the table, with past credits spanning ‘American Crime,’ ‘Law and Order: Criminal Intent,’ ‘Southland,’ ‘Blue Bloods,’ and a showrunner stint on ’13 Reasons Why.’ ‘A Forgotten Kill’ is the second novel in Maldonado’s FBI Special Agent Daniela Vega series.
For Hartley, this marks yet another ambitious move behind the camera at a moment when his on-screen presence is already dominating. He currently stars in and executive produces ‘Tracker’ on CBS, a drama series now in its third season. The show premiered in 2024 after the Super Bowl and quickly became the most-watched broadcast premiere in three years, averaging 18.2 million viewers per episode across its first season. Hartley is clearly building an empire at 20th Television, and ‘A Forgotten Kill’ suggests his ambitions extend well beyond playing a lone-wolf survivalist on Sunday nights.
Maldonado herself is a graduate of the FBI National Academy in Quantico and the first Latina to attain the rank of captain in her police department, retiring as Commander of Special Investigations and Forensics after more than two decades on the force. That real-world credibility permeates her fiction, and it is exactly the kind of authenticity that tends to translate powerfully when adapted for television audiences hungry for crime dramas that feel lived-in and true.
With a Latina protagonist at the center, a writer-producer team that knows how to craft New York-set crime narratives, and source material that balances serial killer suspense with deeply personal backstory, ‘A Forgotten Kill’ already reads like something ABC genuinely needs. Whether Dani Vega becomes the network’s next breakout hero is the question audiences will want answered, so drop your thoughts below on whether this is the kind of female-led procedural you have been waiting to see on network TV.
