LL COOL J & Scott Caan’s ‘NCIS’ Homecoming

After 23 years, seven shows, and a different field office for every NCIS team (not to mention a couple of former agents working remotely in Europe), why not set the newest spinoff in a town that, like the franchise itself, never slows down? “New York, as an entity, as a city, is one of the biggest superstars in the world,” says LL COOL J. With 14 seasons of NCIS: Los Angeles, one of Hawai‘i, and guest spots on the mothership, “New York is a homecoming” for his character, Special Agent Sam Hanna, whom the star still enjoys playing. “He’s inspired families around the world for years. Sam’s cool and smart. I get to live vicariously through him,” he explains. “He’s a hero. He does things in his life Todd would never do in his life. He puts his life on the line for others consistently, family and friends.” (LL COOL J’s birth name is James Todd Smith.) At that, Scott Caan, who’s starring on NCIS: New York as Sam’s new partner, the roguish Nick Schaeffer, interjects: “I know Todd pretty well. I think that Todd would do those things in his own life, too.”

It’s also a homecoming of sorts for Caan, who knows the world of procedurals just as well: He starred on the rebooted Hawaii Five-0 for 10 seasons and Alert: Missing Persons Unit for three. He never planned to do another series in the genre after that. “I just felt like I had done that, and I wanted to do something else,” he explains. “But when I got the phone call and they said it was [LL COOL J], I think it took me three seconds to go, ‘Yeah, OK, I’m in.'”

One thing that’s clear after seeing the two on the Brooklyn set together is they do, like Caan says, “get a good kick out of each other” — both on and offscreen. (For example, the characters enjoy ribbing each other about their sizes as they walk through the bullpen.) In the scene we watch them film, alongside Jennifer Beals, who plays their boss Robyn Wells, they’re simply discussing the details of a case. When the cameras stop rolling, they’re all smiles and LL COOL J is entertaining everyone by blasting music.

“Both these guys have so much charisma kind of dripping off of them, and so they play so great together,” says showrunner Byron Balasco. “You immediately feel this vibe that they genuinely like each other but at the same time can go back and forth in a way that’s really entertaining.”

While the producers and cast want to do something new with New York, they’re not forgetting what works in the NCISuniverse, the mix of cases these federal agents tackle and their often season-long personal storylines. It’s about, “How can we maintain the roots but take it to a different level?” LL COOL J says. He called in L.A. showrunner R. Scott Gemmill (The Pitt) to “help craft the foundation,” he notes. Then, to head the series, they brought in Balasco (Without a Trace and Kingdom), who loves that it’s set in a city that’s so “incredible, dynamic, [and] iconic.” The plan is to showcase all of New York, going to “all the boroughs and little corners that you don’t always see,” he says. “We want our stories to reflect the energy of New York, where there’s a lot of pace, it really moves, but it feels grounded and authentic. You can’t walk around New York and not feel like you’re swept up in the bloodstream of it.”

Adds LL COOL J, “New York has a vibe and a whole different energy. We wanted this show to present that to the world, and I think we accomplished it.”

Don’t call it a comeback (but it sort of is)

When LL COOL J last appeared as Sam Hanna onscreen on NCIS last spring, he mentioned he was heading to Dubai to visit a friend. What he’s been doing since is what he does best — special assignments, covert ops — while avoiding things in his personal life. “You stay on the road, and you stay busy. You don’t have to think about yourself,” says Balasco. But that changes with the first episode’s case, the death of a friend, Navy reservist Jack Halloway. Sam, who was close with the man and his wife, asks permission from Robyn to investigate. She then pairs him with Caan’s Nick. “The first case really needed to be personally connected and resonating with Sam to bring him home,” the showrunner explains. “This is a case he can’t deny. It’s sort of a hero coming home to make things right.”

But home isn’t what it used to be, and neither is the former Navy SEAL after decades away. “He feels like a stranger,” LL COOL J admits. “It’s his hometown, but the places, the faces have changed. He’s going to have to get his feet wet and figure out what it means to be back in New York. That’s the interesting thing about a character like this: He’s flawed and he’s been away and he’s going to have to find his way. … This is an opportunity for him to find redemption.”

Viewers will also get a deeper understanding of who he is when they see a different side of the character back in his hometown. “You’ll see who Sam was before you met him in L.A. a little bit and the connections he had to the city and the people there that made him and [the] responsibilities that home brings out in people,” according to Balasco.

He’s been here for years

The other half of this newest partnership in the NCIS universe is Nick Schaeffer, who’s “New York through and through,” says the showrunner. “He feels like he owes this city something, and he wants to serve.” Nick grew up in a town in Bay Ridge, and while he at first resisted joining the police or fire department like a lot of his neighbors did, he became a cop, then joined NCIS, and has been working in New York his entire career.

Nick is the guy you turn to when you need to know anything about the city. “He knows all the best spots. He loves this city. He loves to talk to all the people. He’s a very charming, maybe blunt truth-teller, but it’s all with love,” Balasco details. Nick may want to get Sam to open up to him — not something the other agent is keen on doing — and that leads to some entertaining moments. But that does beg the question: Is Nick going to share parts of himself with Sam in return? “Exactly. Is putting the spotlight on Sam a way of getting [it] off him?” asks Balasco.

Regardless, Nick is thrilled to have Sam join the team. “The drive for me is I’m looking for a reason to keep doing what I’m doing, and that’s what he is for me,” explains Caan. “So, watching how he does what he does is something that excites me about this job and that’s sort of the set-off point for me. It’s like, ‘I want you to stick around and keep me excited about this job.'” As for what Nick would want his partner to know about him, “I just want him to know I’m a good guy,” Caan says. “I might make mistakes, but I’m a good guy.” In turn, LL COOL J notes that all he wants anyone to know is “he’s 100% on board and loyal to the team and his teammates. As far as hiding anything, what you see is what you get.”

Meet the rest of the team taking the city by storm

Sam may be the NCIS franchise veteran on this series, but the field office boss is Beals’ director Robyn Wells. He has no designs on her job but others do have plans for her, ones that she doesn’t necessarily want for herself. “She’s very much a woman on the ascent. The powers that be [see her] as somebody who could go really far, meaning Attorney General, senator,” Balasco explains. “But Robyn just loves her job — leading the team, working with these people, solving crimes, doing things in life that have real stakes, getting justice for people. Her conflict is, what does she want versus what are everybody else’s plans for her?”

Robyn is the kind of boss who “wants her team to develop their own critical thinking skills,” says Beals. “She believes that leadership need not always be ingrained in steel. She reminds herself that Persephone was both the Queen of Hell and the goddess of flowers.” LL COOL J raves about “the energy and gravitas” Beals brings to the role. Robyn “runs things intuitively,” he adds. “Sam operates on instincts, but that could be good or bad. He’s never had a problem dealing with authority per se, but we don’t know where this is going to go.”

Of the rest of the team, Robyn’s especially connected to tech specialist Sean Sullivan, played by Devin Druid. He’s with the team after getting into some trouble, and Robyn is hoping that with the others, he can get past his “nihilistic apathy,” as the showrunner puts it, and see the good he can accomplish. You’d never call Sean humble. “He’s a weird little smart-ass with an ego to match his genius,” Druid shares. “He believes he knows better and he can get away with whatever he wants. But his work always speaks for itself.” He also has no issue pointing out when someone doesn’t know something.

Rounding out the team are Special Agents Wyatt Sellers (Shane Harper) and Addison “Addy” Ross (Jacqueline Byers), field partners for 10 months when we meet them. Caan describes them as being like Nick’s little sister and brother. “It’s definitely a good family vibe,” he says.

Wyatt is a former Marine from Alaska who just had “a lot of personal upheaval” and is still finding his place in the big city. “He’s a skilled and strong soldier with a good heart and a sensitive side,” describes Harper. “He prefers to reward himself with a cold glass of milk rather than a beer, which his team can’t help but give him a hard time over.”

He’s the opposite of Addy, who comes from a military family, spent seven years working intel for Naval Intelligence, speaks 13 languages, and “doesn’t take any prisoners,” Byers says. “Locker room talk is her love language.” In trying to step out from her father’s shadow, she mostly wants to prove to herself that she’s not him, “her accomplishments are based on her own merit, and that, ultimately, morality can still win the day.” Addy is the one guiding Wyatt through life in New York, but he may have something to teach her as well. “While she’s teaching him how to acclimate, his purity and genuine soul begin to chip away at Addy’s hard perception of the world,” Byers teases.

If you’re wondering if they could be the next will they/won’t they pairing of the franchise, following the likes of Tony (Michael Weatherly) and Ziva (Cote de Pablo) on NCIS and Kensi (Daniela Ruah) and Deeks (Eric Christian Olsen) on NCIS: Los Angeles, all Balasco will say is, “You never know. Opposites do attract sometimes, don’t they?”

All are welcome

The NCIS franchise has taken over Tuesday nights on CBS, where New York will air in between the mothership and the prequel Origins. After those two shows crossed over last year, despite the different timelines, and given that Sam is close to the NCIS team, it feels like a crossover with New York should be inevitable, but nothing is planned just yet. “We’ll see what happens,” says Balasco. “People pop up.” He does confirm that we’ll hear about some of the LA characters from Sam in conversation.

LL COOL J and Caan both have someone from the franchise they’d love to have on in mind, but neither will say who. “We’re going to leave it open,” says LL COOL J. “They’re all welcome. The whole universe is welcome. We’re the new kids on the block in terms of the franchise.” Adds Caan, “Everyone wants to come to New York.”

Including criminals. Welcome to New York, NCIS.

NCIS: New York, Series Premiere, Tuesday, October 6, 9/8c, CBS