'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' Season 8: Is Stephanie Beatriz Leaving As Rosa Diaz?

Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 8 is the first season of the NBC show to air after the Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality that erupted after the death of George Floyd.

Detective Rosa Diaz (played by Stephanie Beatriz) is just one of the characters who is affected by the BLM movement in the season premiere, airing on August 12 on NBC.

In the opening minutes of the show, Diaz announces she has quit the force in order to become a private detective, with later scenes seeing her explaining her uneasiness at being part of the police after the protests.

As Diaz remains a fan favorite character on the show (which ends this season), many viewers watching the Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 8 premiere may worry that her quitting the 99 may be the end of her run on the show.

Is Stephanie Beatriz Leaving 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine'?

Fans can rest assured. Diaz is going nowhere. Beatriz appears across the five episodes given to critics in the lead-up to the NBC show airing its final season. In the season premiere, she reveals she has left the police to become a private detective, helping those who have been the victims of police brutality.

This comes after Beatriz has publicly expressed uneasiness with playing a cop amid the anti-police protests. In June 2020, she made an $11,000 contribution to the National Bail Fund Network, tweeting, "I'm an actor who plays a detective on tv. If you currently play a cop? If you make tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in residuals from playing a cop? I'll let you do the math."

The following day, she tweeted a statement that the Brooklyn Nine-Nine team were making a $100,000 donation to the network, writing: "The cast and showrunner of Brooklyn 99 condemn the murder of George Floyd and support the many people who are protesting police brutality nationwide."

This Diaz storyline is part of a wider effort to explore police brutality in the show, amid criticism that the series was pro-police "copaganda."

A previous season included an episode in which Terry Jeffords (Terry Crews) experienced racial profiling, but in interviews lead actor Andy Samberg has pledged to up these efforts in Season 8.

He told Variety: "Our characters need to examine their roles in the world. They're going to be forced to look in the mirror and see who they're complicit with."

The SNL alum added: "The challenge is going to be being honest about what is going on in the world and not shying away from the fact that there are serious problems, and also not punishing viewers who like our show and care about our characters."

Crews told Seth Meyers that the cast and crew had "had some somber talks and some really eye-opening conversation about how to handle this new season."

Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 8 airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. CT on NBC.