Ain’t it Cool (J)?: NCIS to open East Coast Operations…

This time of year produces a lot of news about the plans that the major tv networks have for the next calendar year. There’s cancellations and additions in the mix… and a few surprises.

One of the surprises is the confirmation of another NCIS spin-off… this time the location will be the ‘Big Apple’ that is New York. The plan is to run the new show as part of another NCIS block of shows – placing it between the parent show, the original NCIS and NCIS: Origins (which traces the early years of Jethro Gibbs and the unit that would become the Navy Criminal Investigation Service).

Casting-wise, NCIS: New York will see the return of  NCIS: Los Angeles‘ Sam Hanna (LL Cool J) to the franchise with the official details explaining that the agent is returning  to his hometown of New York City to their field office and helping lead a new team as they are “…tasked with high-stakes missions to defend one of the most vital cities and ports in the world.”  LL Cool J will be seen as the character again in the next two episodes of NCIS airing this month.

It is also confirmed that Scott Caan is the other major name attached. Caan previously starred in the likes of the Hawaii Five-O reboot and Alert: Missing Persons Unit. Interestingly, the Hawaii Five-0 reboot technically exists in the same universe as the NCIS franchise and crossed over several times with Caan’s Danny appearing alongside NCIS guest-stars.  However, at this point, it doesn’t appear that Caan will be playing the same role.

According to industry site Deadline, R. Scott Gemmill (who was also a showrunner on NCIS: Los Angeles and currently show-runs The Pitt) will be writing the NCIS: New York pilot and Kingdom‘s Byron Balasco will serve as showrunner.

There was some additional surprise in the fact that if there was going to be another NCIS-linked show, fans expected it to be a second season of NCIS: Tony and Ziva which was cancelled after one season in December. When asked by industry site Deadline about the decision, CBS Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach simply replied:  “We really wanted to bring the Sam Hanna character back,”