‘Psych’ Team Talks Reteaming With Timothy Omundson: ‘There Was a Hole When We Were Filming the First Movie’

It’s been six years since “Psych” aired its series finale on USA Network after an eight-season run, but the property is hardly out of cases for its central detective duo.

“Even on the pilot, I was saying we’re going to do five seasons and a movie, and as we got past five seasons we had to just start upping our expectations,” said creator Steve Franks during ATX Television Festival’s virtual reunion panel Sunday. “Then we stopped speculating on the seasons and I added it to six movies. So we got eight seasons, six movies; we’re in two. I think if we start speaking it into existence, it’ll start to happen.”

With a loyal fanbase that’s still clamoring for more shenanigans and a creative team whose bonds only grow stronger with time, there’s still ambitious plans to keep following these characters into the future. Most imminent is “Psych 2: Lassie Come Home,” the second film based off of the series, which is set to debut on July 15 on Universal’s streaming service Peacock.

“We’re trying to accomplish the same thing we’re always trying to accomplish: Giving our core fans everything they expect, not forgetting anything that might disappoint them if it wasn’t in there and having a great time doing it,” executive producer Chris Henze said.

Joining the behind-the-scenes creative team members on the panel were cast members James Roday, Dulé Hill, Maggie Lawson, Kirsten Nelson and Corbin Bernsen. The group spoke of their excitement that Timothy Omundson, who plays Carlton Lassiter, the detective with a love-hate rivalry with Roday’s Shawn Spencer, returned for the new film. Omundson suffered a stroke just before shooting began on 2017’s “Psych: The Movie,” causing some portions of the movie to be rewritten to scale down his part. Having recovered, Omundson will feature much more heavily in “Psych 2: Lassie Come Home.”

“There was a hole when we were filming the first movie,” Hill said. “As much fun as we had doing it, Tim wasn’t there.”

Roday also expressed gratitude toward the loyalty of the “Psych” fanbase, which allows the group to continue working together and putting these characters on new escapades.

“I like to think of them as our partners on this crazy journey,” he said. “They’re just as essential to the adventure as we are. We’re stoked that they get another chapter that they earned, that they fought for and that they loudly demanded. We’re all in this together.”