ending of The Lincoln Lawyer season 3, fans are waiting eagerly for the next season, which will center on Mickey Haller’s murder trial. The onscreen story will adapt The Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly. Unfortunately, the show will have a major problem.

As Mickey Haller’s half-brother and an ex-police investigator, the character Harry Bosch plays an important role in the book. However, Mickey Haller cannot appear in Prime Video’s Bosch, and Harry Bosch can’t appear in Netflix’s The Lincoln Lawyer. The characters are owned by competing platforms who aren’t usually keen to work together. Despite this, I’m confident that the co-showrunners, Dailyn Rodriguez and Ted Humphrey, can handle the Bosch issue in The Lincoln Lawyer season 4’s because they already solved the problem three years back.

The Lincoln Lawyer Season 1 Already Had To Write Out Harry Bosch From The Book Story

The Lincoln Lawyer Replaced Harry Bosch With Detective Griggs

Bosch played a significant role in The Brass Verdict book, investigating Jerry Vincent’s murder. Mickey only learns that Bosch is his half-brother at the end of the book. The Lincoln Lawyer season 1 adapts The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly, and it did a masterful job of filling in the gaps for Harry Bosch’s absence. According to Tudum, the showrunners and Connelly worked together to overcome the obstacle, creating Detective Raymond Griggs, played by Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine.

Connelly said, “I knew what a good actor he was. When we went down that road with him, it was like, ‘This is not Bosch, but this is going to be pretty good.’” Griggs might not have the same emotional, familial connection as Bosch, but he solves the problem in every other way. He helps move Mickey’s story forward smoothly. Because of this, I have zero doubt that The Lincoln Lawyer season 4, which will adapt The Law of Innocence, will be capable of writing him out in just as interesting and compelling of a way.

How The Lincoln Lawyer Season 4 Can Replace Harry Bosch

The Lincoln Lawyer Will Use Cisco To Help Fill In The Gaps

The biggest hint about how The Lincoln Lawyer season 4 solves the Bosch problem comes from co-showrunner Dailyn Rodriguez. After the end of The Lincoln Lawyer season 3, I interviewed Rodriguez for Screen Rant, and I asked her how they would handle the absence. While she could not provide specific details about the plan, she did indicate that Cisco would help fill in the gaps in the same way Lorna fills in for Jennifer Aronson’s absence.

Because Netflix will never (barring a miracle) get the rights from Prime Video to use Harry Bosch as a character, most future seasons of The Lincoln Lawyer will continue to face the same issue.

Her co-showrunner, Ted Humphrey, also addressed Bosch’s absence in season 4. He said that they could use the same approach as they did when they turned Lankford into Neil Bishop in The Lincoln Lawyer season 3. Though they probably won’t bring back Mwine, this is also the same thing they did with Bosch and Detective Griggs.

Based on these statements, they might make take a mixed approach when filling in the gaps. Humphry’s statement suggest that a new character could fill parts of Bosch’s storyline. At the same time, they will also allocate many of Bosch’s responsibilities to existing characters like Cisco. It’s unlikely that Cisco will fill in all the gaps though. In The Law of Innocence, he uses his resources as an ex-police investigator to help get information from people within the system and look through the discovery file.

The Lincoln Lawyer Season 5 Would Also Face The Same Harry Bosch Challenge

Harry Bosch Will Always Be A Problem For The Lincoln Lawyer Season 5

Unfortunately, because Netflix will never (barring a miracle) get the rights from Prime Video to use Harry Bosch as a character, most future seasons of The Lincoln Lawyer will continue to face the same issue. Season 5 obviously hasn't been renewed since season 4 hasn’t even received a release date. However, if Netflix moves forward with after the fourth addition, Rodriguez and Humphrey will need to find a way around Harry Bosch again.

The Lincoln Lawyer season 5 would almost definitely be based on Resurrection Walk, which features Harry Bosch quite a bit. The good news is, if The Lincoln Lawyer season 4 goes as well as I expect it will, the showrunners will have two seasons under their belts where they’ve written around Bosch in a significant way without any issues.