How Shantel VanSanten’s Move to ‘Most Wanted’ Changed ‘FBI’ Finale

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Heading into Season 5, FBI: Most Wanted had a spot to fill on the Fugitive Task Force (not exactly new for these agents), and they turned to a familiar face in the franchise, Nina Chase (Shantel VanSanten, who previously recurred on FBI), to replace Kristin Gaines (Alexa Davalos). Don’t worry: She fits right in.

Her first case with her new teammates is going to be a complicated one. In the February 13 premiere, “Above & Beyond,” the agents must put the pieces together when a mysterious deal goes south, leaving behind multiple bodies. But how’s Nina going to get along with the rest of the team? And how drastically did last season’s FBI finale change for Nina and Scola (John Boyd) as a result of her saying yes to the move over to the spinoff? TV Insider got the scoop from VanSanten below.

Welcome full-time to Most Wanted!

Shantel VanSanten: Thanks! So excited to be here.

Talk about making that move over from FBI and how that came about.

I had a 10-episode run that I had signed on to do and to play Nina while Missy [Peregrym] was pregnant and having the baby and just taking a little bit of a break. I was really excited to come in, and there’s this really interesting thing that happens when you know your time is limited—you really make the most of it. I remember coming in and thinking, “I’m not going to leave here having any regrets. I’m going to play Nina to my fullest.” And I was really excited to play a character who was this really independent alpha female who wasn’t married, didn’t have kids, loved her job, did it to the fullest extent. After some of the characters that I had been previously playing, it felt really freeing and a wonderful physical challenge, which I love.

And by the end of my 10-episode run, Nina was pregnant, and that presented a different challenge and lent itself to a bunch more crossovers and the finale. And during the finale, I remember getting a script where the baby doesn’t make it, and I was like, oh, wow. Then I got a call from Rick [Eid], who’s the showrunner, and he said, “Pause, we may be changing that.” And then I got a call with an offer to join Most Wanted, and if I did, the baby would live. So I felt like I was in a real Sophie’s choice. No, but I felt really grateful that I got to be a part of this creative process of understanding how Nina would transition, why she would make that choice to join a more intense fugitive task force as a mother and having two working parents. And once I understood the dynamic and the team I would be joining, I was all in. I just could never have expected that what was supposed to be 10 episodes of Nina would turn into, “Hey, guys, I’m sticking around.” So I’m really, really grateful.

What makes this the right move for her? Just from the first episode, she fits right in. It seems like this is the work she’s meant to be doing.

Yeah, I think that when it comes to her career, she’s not somebody who wanted to put her life on hold because she had a child, and she wanted to keep pushing herself and growing and using her skillset. The way that it’s set up is there’s an opening in the Fugitive Task force, and it makes sense. We’ve met Nina before, she’s worked with him last year in the crossovers, the audiences have seen her. So it just felt like a really natural place for her to fall into and to be able to use some of the skills that we didn’t get to see in FBI.

Mark Schafer/CBS

And I think people may question—and that’s okay for audiences to question—why she would make a job choice that’s more intense or more challenging, but I think it’s also people’s personal journeys. That’s something that she really wants to find out for herself. I think it’s also a story we haven’t seen where people are going to watch both shows to see how both parents are juggling working, like people do in real life. Most people have to have two working parents to pay the bills.

What does she bring to the task force that they need?

A lot of skills that I personally do not have. [Laughs] She understands cars, she can drive like a bat out of hell. With each episode, I discover a new skillset that she has that I didn’t know—even tying rope knots, I learned what a figure nine rope knot was the other day, and I learned it on the spot, and I walked away thinking, this is so cool that I myself get to learn because she’s this elite agent. But with each episode they write that she has a skill that I get to discover that she has, [I learn] why she has it. And that’s something that I love. I love that there are these little moments of backstories that we get to learn about Nina’s life because of a skill that she has.

Nina and Remy (Dylan McDermott) don’t get off on the right foot, though that doesn’t affect the way they work together. What can you preview about that dynamic?

I think it’s so important when you start any relationship, there isn’t always trust that’s given. There may be trust in somebody’s abilities, but maybe not their judgment or vice versa. And what’s important is that when you bump heads and you don’t agree or there’s something that challenges two people who don’t see eye to eye to understand one another, there’s a trust that’s built, there’s an understanding of one another. And I think it’s important that on the team there exists some of that, that maybe Nina doesn’t trust everything that’s happening or that somebody on the team doesn’t trust her as much, but that it can be built. It’s only through opposition or challenges that arise that you’re able to build a stronger understanding and a stronger team. And I was really a champion for those moments, those moments of proving to one another that even though you don’t agree, you can still have respect.

I like the moment when she walks in and the rest of the team greets her and we see those existing relationships. And I have to say that I’m already a fan of Nina and Barnes (Roxy Sternberg) working together. How much more are we going to see of her working with Barnes versus Hana (Keisha Castle-Hughes) or Ray (Edwin Hodge)?

A lot. Nina joining and having the skillset that she does offers for the team to kind of break apart a little bit more. We work together a lot, but we also now get a chance to break apart and have little side stories. And obviously her and Barnes, even from episodes, episodes, episodes back, it was great because both Roxy and John told me about scenes that they had together where Scola’s character had slept with Barnes’s roommate like many, many, many, many episodes ago. So there was this little “spill the tea” between them, and it allowed for Barnes and Nina to kind of have a bond.

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Even for Roxy and I—I remember day two sitting on set on one of the locations and just spilling our guts about our lives. And it’s been so wonderful to join a new show and to just feel right at home and so welcomed. And me personally, I was terrified because you just never know the dynamic of walking into a show that has had other characters and history and turnover, and it was so lovely the way that we all just sat in a circle and shared, and in real life, being able to have that, I think, really reflects on screen.

How are Nina and Scola doing? How much are we going to hear? Are there any crossovers coming up? They’ve also clashed in the field before and now both working parents…

Yeah. This season for each agent, we’re really seeing into their personal lives and we definitely get a chance to see into Nina’s personal life. And I think the whole excitement between the shows was to have two people that you could have mini crossovers. Obviously, the big crossovers are so much fun for all of us, but just being able to do even little mini ones where we get to see and have a little preview into their lives is something that’s really wonderful to see kind of the evolution of them because of where they started. It is miles and miles and miles different now. And as I said, I think it’s really important to show real life and to show two working parents and the challenges behind it and the village it takes to help raise a family.

FBI: Most Wanted, Season 5 Premiere, Tuesday, February 13, 10/9c, CBS