The Blacklist season 8: Show EP on recasting Brian Dennehy’s Dom

There were a lot of big moments on Friday night’s The Blacklist season 8 premiere, but one of the more notable ones came courtesy of Dom. After all, we saw the character played by a new actor in Ron Raines after the late Brian Dennehy played the part for many years.

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Losing Dennehy is a huge loss, and we don’t think recasting the character was a decision that was made lightly. Yet, executive producer Jon Bokenkamp told us last year that they considered killing the character off at the start of season 7, but kept him alive knowing that there was a big story left to tell with him. That story hasn’t been told fully as of yet, and bringing Raines on board was the right choice given the circumstances.

In talking about this decision further, here is what fellow EP John Eisendrath had to say on the subject to TVLine:

It’s always difficult to make that kind of decision. It is incredibly sad that people we’ve come to know and work with and admire have passed away. In this case, while on the one hand [Dennehy] is irreplaceable, on the other hand, the story was at a place where [Dom] was absolutely instrumental in it. He’s the central point of the story. He knows a truth that everyone is trying to figure out. So while it was a difficult decision to do, we felt it was necessary, and we hope people understand that.

We do think that most viewers will get the change given what is happening in the story — there is no replacing Dennehy, but the goal here is to still deliver as seamless a storytelling experience as possible.

What do you think about recasting Dom on The Blacklist season 8?

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