Titus Makin Is Staying Tight-Lipped About His Shocking Exit From 'The Rookie'

Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for Season 4, Episode 1 of The Rookie.

Fans of Titus Makin's character Jackson West on The Rookie are still scratching their heads over the actor's Season 4 departure. Titus has been a part of the main cast of The Rookie since the show premiered in 2018. For those who haven't seen ABC's hit procedural crime series, The Rookie follows John Nolan (Nathan Fillion), a man in his forties who joins the Los Angeles Police Department as the oldest rookie recruit.

Titus's character Jackson also started out in the show as a rookie. After two seasons of training, Jackson was officially promoted to police officer in Season 3. Sadly, Jackson's career triumph was cut short in Season 4, Episode 1, when he was shot in the back by one of Sandra "La Fiera" De La Cruz's hitmen. The question that still remains unanswered is: Why did Titus leave The Rookie when it seemed like Jackson's career in the LAPD was just taking off?

There's no denying that fans are still shocked by Titus's exit from The Rookie. Jackson was definitely a fan-favorite character! It's important to note that Titus left the show on his own accord after Season 3.

Titus's decision to leave the show was confirmed by The Rookie showrunner Alexi Hawley. Per an interview with TVLine, Hawley said, "What I can say is that Titus Makin [is] not coming back to the show ... So we needed to do the best that we could to honor the character who’s been so primally a part of the show."

Titus doesn't appear to be doing any exit interviews to explain his reasoning for leaving the show. The actor also performs as a singer under the name 'Butterfly Ali. Titus's most recent Instagram posts — made back in June of 2021 —conveyed his excitement over the release of his EP, "Preacher's Kid."

Back in May of 2021, Titus spoke to Celebrity Page about his excitement over his upcoming EP.

"We've been sitting on all these songs for so long ... And now we finally get to be like, 'World! Here's the peek into how I feel about love, how I feel about racial injustice, how I feel about loving myself ...This is the reality of all the colors of who I am.'"

Although Titus himself has yet to speak out about why he exited The Rookie, it's possible that he left in order to focus on his growing music career. Regardless of his reasoning, it thankfully doesn't appear to be due to any sort of behind-the-scenes drama. Season 4, Episode 1 of The Rookie featured a touching tribute to Jackson, with Angela (Alyssa Diaz) naming her newborn son after her friend.

There's no doubt that Titus's time on The Rookie was a resounding success and his character Jackson will definitely be remembered fondly by fans. Hopefully the actor and musician will let fans know soon what he's doing next in his career.

Catch new episodes of The Rookie every Sunday at 10 p.m. EST on ABC