Quantico is an American thriller drama television series which aired on ABC from September 27, 2015, to August 3, 2018, with 57 episodes broadcast over three seasons. Produced by ABC Studios, the series was created by Joshua Safran, who also served as the showrunner. Mark Gordon, Robert Sertner, Nicholas Pepper and Safran are its executive producers. Michael Seitzman replaced Safran as the new showrunner and an executive producer in its third season, with Safran remaining as an executive producer.
Priyanka Chopra stars as Alex Parrish, who joins the FBI after graduating from the FBI Academy and becomes a prime suspect in a terrorist attack on Grand Central Terminal. Quantico initially had two timelines: the present, when Parrish flees from captivity to prove her innocence, and the past, with her and her fellow recruits training at the academy, during which details of their individual lives are learned. The series switched to a single timeline from the middle of the second season onward.
In addition to Chopra, the first South Asian to headline an American network drama series, the original cast—which changed significantly as the series progressed—included Jake McLaughlin, Yasmine Al Massri, Johanna Braddy, Tate Ellington, and Graham Rogers as her fellow recruits, with Josh Hopkins and Aunjanue Ellis as their trainers at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. The series' first season was produced primarily in Montreal, with downtown Montreal and Sherbrooke, Canada standing in for New York City and Quantico, Virginia in the United States. Production moved to New York during the second season, with a few episodes being shot in Italy and Ireland for its third season.
Quantico received positive reviews from critics, with praise for Chopra's performance and the diversity of the cast. The "confusing dual timelines" were criticized by some. The series was nominated for four People's Choice Awards, including Favorite Network TV Drama, with Chopra winning two: Favorite Actress in a New TV Series in 2016—making her the first South Asian to win a People's Choice Award—and Favorite Dramatic TV Actress in 2017. ABC canceled the series in May 2018, and it ended after three seasons.
Series overview
FBI agent Alex Parrish becomes a prime suspect after a terrorist attack on Grand Central Terminal and is arrested for treason. In flashbacks, she and her fellow recruits (each with their own reason for joining the Bureau) train at the FBI Academy. The present-day timeline focuses on Parrish's strained relationship with her friends while she is on the run and attempting to prove her innocence, even as additional violent attacks take place.
In the second season, Parrish has apparently been fired by the FBI. In flashbacks, she works undercover for the FBI as a CIA recruit at The Farm to uncover the AIC, a rogue faction within the agency. In the present timeline, a hostage crisis at a G-20 summit in New York City is initiated by the Citizens Liberation Front, a terrorist group. Two weeks after the crisis, President Claire Haas and CIA director Matthew Keyes form a covert CIA-FBI task force (led by Clay Haas) to expose eight conspirators who were secretly involved in orchestrating the hostage crisis.
The third season is set three years after the events of the Constitutional Convention. After living anonymously in Italy, Parrish is forced to return to the United States after Ryan Booth shares information to her about Shelby Wyatt's kidnapping by a notorious international arms dealer known as The Widow. In order to save Wyatt, Booth and Parrish recruit Owen Hall and Harry Doyle to help them with their mission. Hall invites Jocelyn Turner to the team as the former FBI agent has intelligence about the arms dealer, due in part to their past history. Owing to the extreme circumstances of the covert operation, the team must retrieve Wyatt at all costs, before time runs out.
Cast and characters
Priyanka Chopra as Alex Parrish, a promising FBI agent who becomes a prime suspect in the Grand Central Terminal bombing case Josh Hopkins as Liam O'Connor, a seasoned FBI agent who was demoted to work at the FBI academy as a teacher (season 1) Jake McLaughlin as Ryan Booth, an undercover FBI agent tasked with tracking Alex Aunjanue Ellis as Miranda Shaw, former assistant director of the FBI Academy at Quantico (seasons 1–2) Graham Rogers as Caleb Haas, a former FBI agent (season 1, guest season 2) Yasmine Al Massri as Nimah and Raina Amin, twins recruited by Miranda for the FBI (seasons 1–2) Johanna Braddy as Shelby Wyatt, Alex's best friend and fellow FBI agent Tate Ellington as Simon Asher, Alex's fellow FBI trainee (season 1) Anabelle Acosta as Natalie Vasquez, an FBI trainee and Alex's former rival at the academy (season 1) Russell Tovey as Harry Doyle, a former MI6 agent and one of the CIA recruits at The Farm (seasons 2–3) Pearl Thusi as Dayana Mampasi, an attorney and one of the CIA recruits at The Farm (season 2) Blair Underwood as Owen Hall, a former CIA lead instructor at The Farm and current Deputy Director of the FBI (seasons 2–3) Marlee Matlin as Jocelyn Turner, an ex-FBI agent and undercover expert whose career was derailed after she was rendered deaf from a bombing (season 3) Alan Powell as Mike McQuigg, an overly assertive and adept FBI operative with several years of undercover experience (season 3)
Production
Development
Series creator Joshua Safran wanted a "straightforward action show" different from his past work, which included the soapy dramas Gossip Girl and Smash. He revealed that he wanted to do something with a law enforcement theme such as a political thriller about the NYPD after the September 11 attacks. He based protagonist Alex Parrish, whose complex family history haunts her throughout the series, on a relative of his; Safran wove his own struggle to understand his family member into Alex's desire to learn the truth about her father.
Safran said, "I have a family member who either is a pathological liar or has been involved with a government agency my whole life. I've always struggled with knowing that I would never know the truth, because there is no real such thing as the truth with regard to somebody who may or may not be telling the truth. That struggle informed the character of Alex."He described the series as a sexy romance and a political thriller, adding "It's like, what would Die Hard be if Die Hard was weekly and was also a soap."
Safran offered the series to ABC. On September 17, 2014, the network announced that it had bought the concept for a drama series from ABC Studios and Safran and produced by Mark Gordon, describing it as "Grey's Anatomy meets Homeland." ABC ordered a pilot on January 23, 2015, for the 2015–16 television season. The series was picked up from the pilot, with an initial order of 13 episodes for the 2015 network television season. Good ratings led ABC to pick up Quantico for a full season in October with an additional six episodes (increasing the episode count to 19), with an option for more. In November, the season was extended to 22 episodes. In March 2016, ABC announced that it had renewed Quantico for a second season, also consisting of 22 episodes.
The series was produced by ABC Studios in association with The Mark Gordon Company and Random Acts Productions. Safran, Gordon, Robert Sertner and Nicholas Pepper were the executive producers, with Cherien Dabis as one of the producers. Safran served as the head writer of the series. The writing staff of Quantico consisted of Justin Brenneman, Cami Delavigne, Cameron Litvack, Logan Slakter, Gideon Yago, Beth Schacter, Jordon Nardino, and Cherien Dabis, all of whom wrote multiple episodes for the series. Various directors had worked on several episodes, notably Patrick Morris, Jennifer Lynch, David McWhirter, Stephen Kay and Steve Robin. Colleen Sharp, Nicholas Erasmus, Daniel A. Valverde, Terilyn A. Shropshire and Shelby Siegel edited multiple episodes. The Director of Photography was Anthony Wolberg, who provided cinematography for most episodes. Other cinematographers include Anastas N. Michos and Todd McMullen. Joel J. Richard and Joseph Trapanese wrote the music.
In May 2017, ABC renewed the series for a third season of 13 episodes. The renewal was based on the international popularity of star Priyanka Chopra, who made the series a strong international seller for ABC Studios. As part of the renewal process, Safran stepped down as showrunner but remained as a consultant. The following month, it was announced that Michael Seitzman would be showrunner and that Safran would be credited as an executive producer. ABC canceled the series in May 2018. Seitzman had plans in the works for a fourth season when the series was cancelled.
Casting Quantico had a racially diverse cast as FBI recruits who deal with their individual problems. Safran had wanted the series to be diverse from the beginning, saying, "You're not just watching people who have struggled to achieve places of power and they're there. This show is about the struggle to achieve that. Their politics and their racial makeup and their religious backgrounds are very important to their characterizations and who they are. I really am interested in looking at how every culture handles stress — and in particular, how people from all these different backgrounds find their place in the FBI, an agency that has historically-fraught relationships with gay people and people of color."
The first actor cast in the series was Tate Ellington as FBI trainee Simon Asher. Graham Rogers was then cast as another FBI trainee, Caleb Haas. It was announced that Aunjanue Ellis had signed to play Miranda Shaw, assistant director and training supervisor of the academy. Dougray Scott was cast as Liam O'Connor, Miranda's former partner and current subordinate.
Indian actor Priyanka Chopra was cast as series protagonist Alex Parrish, the result of a talent holding deal with ABC Studios which required the company to develop a starring project for her or cast her in an existing project for the 2015 television season. ABC casting executive Keli Lee had long tried to persuade Chopra to perform on television in the United States. When the actress began considering U.S. TV, Lee learned that Chopra had been approached by another studio: "I said [to Chopra], 'No, you can't make this deal elsewhere. You're coming here. And I'm flying to India. Lee went to India and convinced Chopra to accept ABC's offer. The actress said about Lee: "I told her, the only way I would do it is if you find me a show and a path which first will put me in the same position that I am in India."
Chopra saw the deal as an opportunity to represent South Asia and challenge Indian stereotypes in Hollywood and the United States, saying, "When I was in school [in the U.S.], you never saw anyone who looked like us that was on TV. And that was really weird for me because there's so many people of South Asian descent in America – in the world. I didn't want to be this stereotype of what Indian people are usually seen as in global pop culture. We don't just have to be Apu from The Simpsons." After being given all 26 pilot scripts which ABC was filming for the 2015–2016 television season, she chose Quantico. Despite having appeared in more than 50 films, she was required to audition for the first time, which she found nerve-wracking.
Safran was impressed by Chopra's audition, which helped him re-envision the character, adding, "She walked into the room, and it was like the molecules shifted in that way that superstars have. I was very confused because I didn't know who she was, but we all sat up straighter. We're like, this is clearly a movie star; it's like every hair on the back of your neck stands up watching her act. When I went back home I couldn't think about anyone else." Chopra became the first South Asian to headline an American network drama series.