Donnie Wahlberg admitted that there’s one thing that will be “hard” for him when he heads to Boston to film the Blue Bloods offshoot, Boston Blue.
The actor, 55, spoke out about what it will be like to return to his hometown while portraying Danny Reagan, his character who is a born and bred New Yorker. He mentioned how the Reagan family dinner table was brought to his family’s restaurant chain location after Blue Bloods ended, bringing him closer to fans.
“I have the Reagan family dinner table in my Wahlburgers location in my hometown where I live with Jenny [McCarthy] in Illinois, and so I’ve had dinner with hundreds of people at the table for charity and when they come, they tell me how excited they are about the show,” Donnie said of the offshoot on Thursday, April 1, while speaking with Fox News Digital. “They’re like, ‘We can’t wait, but is Danny still going to be Danny? Is he going to switch to a Boston accent?’ I’m like, ‘No.’ The fun part is going to be Danny is from New York.”
He joked that he was going to show up in Boston wearing a NYC sweatshirt when it came time to film the show.
“I can’t represent the Red Sox and the Celtics and the Patriots and the Bruins. I got to be Rangers, Islanders, Mets, Knicks,” Donnie said. “It’s going to hurt but I’m going to have to play that part of the character in Boston and, like, really ruffle a lot of my fellow Bostonians’ feathers. I got to be true to the character, and in doing so, yes, he’ll be a New York fan, but he’ll also still be a Reagan, and he’ll still carry on the Reagan traditions and legacies. It’s not a long trip down to New York to visit the family.”
Donnie Wahlberg and Marisa Ramirez
Donnie has already dropped so many hints about what’s to come in Boston Blue, including the fact that the Reagan family won’t be so far away from Danny while he is in Boston and they’re in NYC. Fans would be elated to see Blue Bloods characters like Frank Reagan, Jamie Reagan, Henry Reagan, Erin Reagan and more potentially make cameos in Boston Blue in the future.
“We tried so hard to keep Blue Bloods on the air,” he told PIX11 News last month. “All of us – the cast, the crew, everybody – and honestly, when I say the crew, like, working in New York with our crew was one of the great thrills of my life, and you know, we just couldn’t keep the show going, but when CBS approached me to keep the character going, I said, ‘Well, that sounds interesting.’”
“If anyone knows Danny Reagan, and if anyone knows me, I like surprises and The Reagan’s will always just be a phone call away,” the Boston-born star added. “Danny Reagan likes to use his phone, so I imagine we will pay homage to Blue Bloods as much as we can and honor what Blue Bloods started and carry it forward, and I think have a lot of fun surprises for everybody.”