ABC has begun developing a television adaptation of Isabella Maldonado’s 2024 novel A Forgotten Kill, with Justin Hartley attached as an executive producer through his overall deal at 20th Television, the network confirmed in June 2026.
Hartley will produce the project alongside writer Diana Son, who is set to pen the adaptation and serve as an executive producer, and Ken Olin, who will executive produce and direct. Maldonado, the book’s author, will also executive produce. The series will center on ex-Army Ranger Dani Vega, a Nuyorican from the Lower East Side who works for the FBI breaking codes and spotting patterns, partnered on a task force with NYPD Detective Mark Flint. Vega is haunted by a family tragedy that resurfaces and threatens her career and life.
The attachment of Son and Olin gives ABC a production team with television experience to shepherd a procedural-leaning thriller. Son’s scripts have moved network dramas before, and Olin’s role as director and executive producer signals the network’s interest in a tightly plotted, character-driven series. Hartley’s involvement shifts the show from a standard option into a studio-backed project with an actor-producer who has an active footprint at 20th Television.
For readers asking what A Forgotten Kill is: it is the second novel in Maldonado’s FBI Special Agent Daniela Vega Series, published in 2024 and flanked by A Killer’s Game and A Killer’s Code. Maldonado is a retired police captain and a bestselling author; her series follows Vega through procedural cases that double as reckonings with a violent personal past.
The development also extends Hartley’s producing slate. He currently stars in and executive produces the CBS drama Tracker, now in its third season, which is produced by his ChangeUp Productions under an overall deal with 20th Television and is based on Jeffrey Deaver’s The Never Game. The new ABC project is the latest example of Hartley leveraging that overall deal to move projects into development across networks while maintaining an on‑screen presence elsewhere.
That dual role creates the story’s friction point: Hartley is developing a network action thriller for ABC while continuing to star in and executive-produce Tracker on CBS. The fact that both projects are tied to his 20th Television deal raises practical questions about timing and availability even as it underscores his expanding role as a producer of broadcast thrillers.
Practical details remain sparse. ABC’s status is development — not a series order — and the network has not announced a greenlight, production start date, or a release timetable. The project arrives now as ABC rounds out a development slate with another book-based action drama and as Maldonado’s Daniela Vega novels continue to arrive in readers’ hands.
The single question that will determine the project’s trajectory is when ABC will move from development to a formal series order and production schedule. Until that call comes, the adaptation remains a high-profile element of Hartley’s producing portfolio but without a production window; the network, the writers’ room and Hartley’s calendar will all hinge on that greenlight.
