Will Franklin be in The Drop: A Snowfall Saga? Damson Idris's answer was "wait and see"
Snowfall's spinoff brought back the man who tried to save Franklin Saint, and left Franklin himself to a six-word answer.
The Drop: A Snowfall Saga premiered on FX and Hulu on September 8, 2026, and its eight-episode first season ended on October 27 with "Hercules." Malcolm Spellman created it as a follow-up to Snowfall, John Singleton's drama about the crack epidemic in 1980s South Los Angeles. Gail Bean and Isaiah John return as Wanda Bell and Leon Simmons, and the story moves to 1990, as Wanda tries to break young rappers into the music business.
Franklin, played by Damson Idris, was Snowfall's lead for six seasons. He isn't in the cast.
Where Snowfall left Franklin
Snowfall ended on April 19, 2023, with "The Struggle," and it left Franklin with nothing. His CIA handler, Teddy McDonald, had stolen his $73 million. Veronique left him while pregnant with his child. In the finale, Franklin is a rambling alcoholic in his mother Cissy's crumbling house, and the police are about to seize it over unpaid property taxes.
Leon, his best friend since childhood, offers to help. Franklin turns him down and says he's "free from all of it."
Idris saw it coming. "This was inevitable," he told Rolling Stone as the final season began.
What Idris said
Leon is now back in South Central, running a free legal clinic, which makes a reunion easy to imagine. Asked at Essence Fest in New Orleans, where he joined his former co-stars on a panel, whether he'd turn up in the spinoff, Idris kept it short.
"We'll have to wait and see," Idris said.
Bean gave TV Insider the same nonanswer while promoting the show: "You'll have to see, 'cause I cannot give any spoilers."
Is Franklin in season 1?
No. Franklin doesn't appear in any of the eight episodes, and season 1 ended without him. Chase Hutchinson put it plainly in his review for TheWrap: "Franklin is not a part of this new show." He's a memory, Hutchinson wrote, "merely someone to be referenced."
The finale stays on the marriage of Franklin's best friend instead, and it's falling apart: Leon walks out on Wanda with a gun from his desk, and Wanda ends the season with her artists and without her husband.
The season 2 question
"Wait and see" only works if there's something to wait for. As of October 28, FX hadn't renewed or canceled The Drop. Spellman is already talking about the next one: "So season two we got it," he told The Culture Collective, about Wanda's parents.
If it happens, it will have to fit around Idris's schedule. After F1 with Brad Pitt in 2025, he plays Prince Inan in Children of Blood and Bone, set for 2027.
Previously we wrote: Does Gladys die in The Gilded Age? The doctor makes the Duke choose between her and the baby