Monk Movie: Tony Shalhoub Shares First Details About Mr. Monk's Last Case

By Cameron Bonomolo

Adrian Monk is back — and it's still a jungle out there for the "defective detective." Tony Shalhoub and the Monk cast will reunite for Mr. Monk's Last Case: A Monk Movie, a feature-length sequel film reviving the series that ran for eight seasons between 2002 to 2009 on USA Network. After revealing Peacock's Monk movie will catch up with the germophobic and obsessive-compulsive Adrian Monk (Shalhoub) in the present day "post-COVID," the Emmy-winning actor has shared new details about Mr. Monk's last case involving a wedding and a global pandemic.

"It's Monk present day after however long we've been away from him, 13 years now, going on 14 years," Shalhoub told EW. "This is post-COVID. Monk has been knocked back on his heels because of COVID. He's older. He's not going to be chasing down things on the street and things like that. Hopefully (laughs). We're going to have to write to the fact that Monk's older."

In a release, Peacock revealed Mr. Monk's Last Case: A Monk Movie sees Monk return "to solve one last, very personal case involving his beloved step-daughter Molly, a journalist preparing for her wedding." 

"It's a really interesting story," Shalhoub added. "I can't say too much about it, but it's got all of the good elements that the show was always striving for with a few new twists."

The returning cast of characters includes Captain Leland Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine), Natalie Teeger (Traylor Howard), Lt. Randy Disher (Jason Gray-Stanford), Neven Bell (Hector Elizondo), and Trudy Monk (Melora Hardin). Series creator Andy Breckman and the original creative team are behind the new movie from Universal Studio Group's UCP, which previously produced straight-to-streaming sequel movies to the USA Network series Psych. 

The Emmy-winning original series, which ran for 125 episodes over eight seasons between 2002 and 2009 on USA Network, starred Shalboub as Adrian Monk, a brilliant detective who suffers from OCD, and his psychological disorder costs him his position as a legendary homicide detective on the San Francisco Police Force. Due to the tragic unsolved murder of his wife, Trudy, Monk has developed a heightened fear of germs, heights, crowds and virtually everything else, which provides an unusual challenge to solving crimes ... not to mention his day-to-day existence.

"I'm really excited about revisiting it because when we ended it, it really felt like that was going to be it," Shalhoub said of his Monk return. "But to have this opportunity to to see where we all are [is special]. All of the characters have gone through some changes in those years."

"New and returning fans of Monk will love how this creative team was able to preserve all that we admire about Adrian Monk while bringing him into the present," Beatrice Springborn, President, UCP, said in a statement announcing the revival movie. "We can't wait for Peacock viewers to experience this fresh, fun and imaginative film."

Related:

Watch Mr. Monk Shelters in Place

Shalhoub briefly reprised the character in Mr. Monk Shelters in Place, a digital short released as part of Peacock Presents: The At-Home Variety Show in 2020. The short, which you can watch below, caught up with Monk in quarantine during the early days of the COVID pandemic.

Mr. Monk's Last Case: A Monk Movie will shoot this summer and will have a streaming premiere on Peacock. All episodes of Monk are available to stream now on Peacock.

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