NCIS season 15 looking for a new series regular

NCIS season 15 already seems to be planning ahead for the future — which is probably a good thing given some cast changes that are coming up.

According to a new report from TVLine, the series is scouting a new series regular, a female character who will be brought in at first to edit an upcoming book from Ducky. Soon after that though, the NCIS team will discover that she has skills that extend far beyond just editing — she’s great at finding solutions to problems.

If our gut was to tell us something upon reading this description, it sounds like NCIS is looking to possibly find a replacement for Abby and start up work before getting around to a potential season 16. Bringing in the new character before Abby’s departure this season should help to make the transition feel a little bit more organic than it would otherwise, and also give them some time for trial and error in the event things don’t quite go according to plan.

There is a comparison that we would draw here between the way NCIS is handling the search for this new character and the one that they did following the departure of Michael Weatherly. They at first brought in Sarah Clarke and Duane Henry at around the time of his exit, with some of the original plans being that the two of them could become regulars for the next season. That happened with Henry (though his character does not appear in every episode), but producers eventually pivoted and brought in Jennifer Esposito and Wilmer Valderrama and Clarke departed. This sort of casting later in the season allows flexibility that you don’t quite get when you just try to bring someone in at the start of the season. It works in some occasions for shows, but isn’t always the case.

CarterMatt would be surprised if we saw this new NCIS character, (regardless of who is cast in the role) before spring. Nobody has been officially brought in as of yet and production is of course many weeks ahead of where the show is right now on CBS. Production has had a lot of time to plan for a new addition — Pauley Perrette’s departure was decided on prior to the start of season 15.

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