Eion Bailey Joins TNT's Trooper Pilot

Once Upon A Time’s Pinocchio has had enough of lies and magic. Eion Bailey, who plays the sometimes wooden character in ABC’s drama, is headed to TNT to star opposite the sexy Mira Sorvino in the network’s pilot Trooper. In the pilot, Bailey will play Sorvino’s partner on the job.

In Trooper, a couple of state troopers will prove how oddball that sort of job can be, and how easy it can be to butt heads when two partners don’t have the same policing philosophy. Sorvino will play KJ Flaxton, a divorced mom who has to balance her work and home life and who doesn’t mind bending the rules to make the best decisions in her life. Bailey’s character, like Sorvino’s, will also be raising kids on his own. According to Deadline, James Burk will be a widowed father with a serious outlook when it comes to the rules.

Trooper was initially set up at CBS, but eventually the network passed. TNT, however, decided to bring new life to the pilot and picked it up in October.

I’m very excited for Bailey to be cast as a series lead, but part of me selfishly wanted Once Upon A Time to bump the actor to series regular (or even a lead--a girl can dream). Hopefully, he will still have time to pop up every now and again in ABC’s fairytale drama if the pilot goes to series. On that front, TV Blend will keep you posted and let you know how Trooper fares.

Jessica Rawden
Managing Editor

Jessica Rawden is Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. She’s been kicking out news stories since 2007 and joined the full-time staff in 2014. She oversees news content, hiring and training for the site, and her areas of expertise include theme parks, rom-coms, Hallmark (particularly Christmas movie season), reality TV, celebrity interviews and primetime. She loves a good animated movie. Jessica has a Masters in Library Science degree from Indiana University, and used to be found behind a reference desk most definitely not shushing people. She now uses those skills in researching and tracking down information in very different ways.