NBC Moves Alaskan Crime Drama Wild Life Into Development

NBC has bought the pitch for Wild Life, a crime drama set in the Alaskan wilderness, and put it into development. Deadline broke the news as an exclusive on 9 November 2026.

Development is the early writing stage. It means the network is paying for scripts and planning, but it has not ordered episodes or promised a air date. Many projects at this stage never reach viewers, and some do.

The show is a procedural, meaning each story usually wraps up within an episode or a short arc of episodes. Its lead is Kate Russo, a former New York Police Department sergeant. She now works as an agent with the Investigative Services Branch of the National Park Service. Russo investigates violent crimes in the wilderness around Denali, Alaska's best-known mountain, while trying to rebuild her relationship with her teenage daughter.

Wild Life is written and executive produced by Juliet Lashinsky-Revene. She is a co-executive producer on Will Trent, the Hollywood series about an investigator. Earlier, she wrote and produced episodes of Law & Order: Organized Crime across several seasons. She also adapted the young adult novel They'll Never Catch Us, written by Jessica Goodman, for Netflix.

The project is being made by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group. Lashinsky-Revene is represented by Paradigm and by Darren Trattner at Jackoway Austen.

For viewers, nothing is on the schedule yet. A development deal is the first of several steps a show must clear before a network commits to a full season. For the writers, it is the start of the work: a pitch, and a chance to turn it into a script.