Donnie Wahlberg‘s Boston Blue character Danny will continue to face challenges in his relationship with son Sean following an onscreen recast.
The Blue Bloods spinoff, which aired its midseason finale on Friday, December 19, followed Danny trying to get to a better place with Sean (Mika Amonsen) now that they were living in the same place. The father-son duo faced their fair share of ups and downs, which keep getting explored in the second half of the season.
“Especially in the back half of the season, we spend time putting them together in situations that force them to look at each other in new lights,” executive producer Brandon Sonnier teased exclusively to Us Weekly. “They force Sean to want to try to prove himself to his father, which is a thing that he’s always done. But now on another level, to start to recognize that he is his own man.”
Sonnier promised Sean would learn more about his dad.
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“He has lessons to learn from his father but there are also lessons he needs to be out there learning on his own. Then from the other side, this is as close as Danny has ever been to Sean. Both physically — they’re in the same space and now Sean is at work too,” he continued. “So they’re together for a lot more time than they ever have been.”
Sonnier continued: “Danny is learning things about his son that surprise him, things about his son that that he admires and things about his son that he sees pitfalls that he can help him avoid. That relationship through the back half of the season really gets to grow and blossom. They also hit some some tough spots — as all relationships do.”
Danny’s journey in New York was featured on CBS’ Blue Bloods, which ran from 2010 to 2024. The spinoff, which premiered in October, kicked off with Danny visiting Boston after Sean ended up in a coma. This version of Sean looked a little different after the role was previously played by Andrew Terraciano.
“There’s been some negativity, for sure,” Amonsen exclusively told Us last month about taking over the role. “But when I look under those posts that have the negativity, there’s a lot of fans rallying for Sean and people saying that they really enjoyed this character that I’ve created — or my version of character.”
Amonsen noted that he wanted to make Blue Bloods fans happy with his performance, saying, “They’re really enjoying the show and they love where it’s going in terms of Sean and that makes me happy.”
The actor recalled feeling “a ton of pressure” over the situation.
“I felt the pressure to respect an actor before me because I wanted to respect Andrew the best I could. There were even certain visual choices that I made that I wanted to keep in terms of hair styling and certain ways of being [as Sean],” he continued. “I really want to maintain Sean as close as I can in the ways that I do it out of respect for this character that everyone loves — but also the character Andrew built.”
He continued: “When I booked the show, it all happened really quickly. It was within about a week’s time and I was really thrown into it quickly. I did binge watch as much as I could and I found doing the later seasons was more helpful. I wanted to get a sense of who Sean was toward the end of the show. I really wanted to get a sense of his character at that point into adulthood and his relationship with Danny.”
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Terraciano, meanwhile, broke his silence to Us about the shakeup.
“I had somebody call me — actually the day that I was graduating — and they had spoken to my mom and she called me [crying]. They were like, ‘They might be looking for a different Sean,’” Terraciano shared with Us in December about the onscreen change. “Shortly after we got the news, Donnie called me. It was a really beautiful moment of getting to hear from an old friend but also somebody that you respect so much and have learned so much from.”
Terraciano expressed gratitude for his time on Blue Bloods.
“It’s beautiful because you’ll always remember every single line and every day that you had the opportunity to be that character,” he shared. “It doesn’t mean for even a second that somebody else can’t go and do something beautiful with it.”
Terraciano continued: “I got the joy of playing Sean, and I got to send him off into the world. Now somebody else gets that joy. We’re both getting to show what we do and then send Sean off into the world.”
Boston Blue airs on CBS Fridays at 10 p.m. ET.
