While NCIS has avoided recasting throughout the franchise’s staggering 33-year history, the reasoning behind the first major recast in its history makes a lot of sense upon review. The NCIS franchise has been around for a long, long time. Admittedly, the sheer longevity of The Simpsons dwarfs almost every network TV show, but the NCIS franchise as a whole can give the iconic animated comedy a run for its money.

There are over 500 episodes of NCIS across the show’s 23 seasons, but there are 227 episodes of its predecessor, JAG, across that show’s ten seasons. Add in the 323 episodes of the 14-season spinoff NCIS: Los Angeles, the 155 episodes in the seven-season spinoff NCIS: New Orleans, and the ten episodes of the show’s most recent spinoff, NCIS: Tony and Ziva, and the franchise becomes so massive that only Dick Wolf’s infamously long-running suite of Law & Order shows could hope to compare with its output.

Mark Harmon’s departure from NCIS in 2021 could have spelled the end of the procedural, but the show has since bounced between different new protagonists while trying to maintain its large fan base. This has largely succeeded, as evidenced by the existence of the upcoming spinoff NCIS: New York. Set to star series legend LL Cool J as Sam Hanna, NCIS: New York has also cast Scott Caan as his new partner, Nick Schaeffer. Of course, anyone familiar with the extensive NCIS universe might find this surprising, given Caan’s original role in an earlier show.

Scott Caan’s NCIS Recasting Explained

Based on the 12-season series of the same name from 1968, Hawaii Five-0 was a CBS reboot that ran from 2010 until 2020 and aired 240 episodes in that time. Its leads were Alex O’Loughlin as Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett, Daniel Dae Kim as Detective Lieutenant Chin Ho Kelly, and Caan as Detective Sergeant Danny Williams. Although the CBS procedural wasn’t an NCIS property, the show did merge its canon with NCIS: Los Angeles in 2012’s crossover event, “Touch of Death.”

Beginning in April 2012 with the Hawaii Five-0 episode “Pa Make Loa,” the two-parter ended in May of the same year with the arrival of the NCIS: Los Angeles episode, “Touch of Death.” This high-octane crossover proves that Caaan’s Danny exists in the same continuity and canon as Sam Hanna, meaning his recasting as the new character Schaeffer is technically an existential retcon for the franchise.

As if this wasn’t enough, the recasting also came as something of a surprise to the star himself. According to NCIS: New York’s Caan, he had long since decided, after ten seasons of Hawaii Five-0 and three seasons of Alert: Missing Persons Unit, that he was done with procedural shows. However, getting a call about the NCIS spinoff and finding out that LL Cool J was set to lead the show led Caan to reconsider, with the star sardonically saying it took him all of three seconds to decide he wanted to be part of the project.

Caan Was Chosen By NCIS For The New York Spinoff

This anecdote reveals a little more about the upcoming spinoff than readers might realize, as it shows that Caan was clearly courted for the series. The fact that CBS was the one who recruited Caan, rather than the actor seeking out the role himself, means that they really wanted him for the part. This is particularly interesting considering the fact that Caan and co-star LL Cool J shared the screen in “Touch of Death,” meaning the creators know their potential as a pairing.

As NCIS: New York starts out, the spinoff could have taken Sam Hanna’s story anywhere. Like NCIS: Tony and Ziva, the spinoff could have paired Hanna with a love interest, or the show could have diverged from the usual ensemble setup of the series entirely by making LL Cool J’s character its sole protagonist. Thus, the fact that the creators instead sought out the star of Hawaii Five-0 to play a new character described as a “roguish” maverick proves that the spinoff has big plans for Caan’s character.

Why Caan Is Perfect For NCIS: New York

While it might be strange to see the NCIS franchise finally recast a major character after avoiding this fate for so long, Caan is the right star to break this sacrosanct rule for. While Hanna is disciplined and loyal, he can also be humorless and self-serious, something that the charismatic Caan can perfectly balance out with his portrayal of Schaeffer.

Every good policy procedural needs a balance of conflicting personalities, whether the show is as serious as True Detective or as silly as Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Caan’s lengthy screen career has consistently seen him balance comedy and drama from as far back as his earliest roles in ‘90s comedies like Nowhere and Bongwater, which appear on his screen CV alongside intense action thrillers like Tony Scott’s underrated Enemy of the State.

Caan’s role in Hawaii Five-O proved he had chemistry with LL Cool J, but bringing back the character of Danno for NCIS: New York could have risked alienating viewers who didn’t follow the earlier reboot’s ten seasons. Furthermore, viewers already know everything there is to know about Danno, a character Caan had many chances to flesh out during the show’s run. In contrast, Schaeffer is a blank slate.

Viewers have watched LL Cool J play Hanna in NCIS: Los Angeles for over a decade now, meaning NCIS: New York always needed to offer something truly new for the spinoff to be appealing to viewers. In this regard, casting Caan is an ingenious double feint. The actor is playing a new character, so viewers don’t technically know what to expect, but his years of work on Hawaii Five-O mean many viewers will arrive at the new series with plenty of built-in goodwill toward its star.

Thus, even though Caan’s casting as Schaeffer means that Danno will now never return to the world of the NCIS franchise, his NCIS: New York role can offer the actor a fresh personality to play in the universe of the long-running procedural. Furthermore, if the NCIS franchise lasts as long as its predecessors, perhaps there will come a stage where digital trickery allows NCIS: New York’s Schaeffer to meet Danno down the line.

Release Date

September 23, 2003

Showrunner

Donald P. Bellisario

Directors

Dennis Smith, Terrence O’Hara, Tony Wharmby, James Whitmore Jr., Thomas J. Wright, Michael Zinberg, Arvin Brown, Rocky Carroll, Diana Valentine, Leslie Libman, Tawnia McKiernan, Colin Bucksey, William Webb, Bethany Rooney, Alrick Riley, Jeff Woolnough, Alan J. Levi, Lionel Coleman, Martha Mitchell, Peter Ellis, Michael Weatherly, Edward Ornelas, Stephen Cragg, Tom Wright

Writers

George Schenck, Frank Cardea, Jesse Stern, John C. Kelley, Jennifer Corbett, Christopher Silber, Reed Steiner, Nicole Mirante-Matthews, Jack Bernstein, Scott J. Jarrett, Matthew R. Jarrett, Kimberly-Rose Wolter, Don McGill, Gil Grant, Frank Military, Nell Scovell, Steven Kriozere, Brian Dietzen, Kate Torgovnick May, Jeff Vlaming, Sydney Mitchel, Katie White, Richard C. Arthur, Laurence Walsh

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  Sean Murray

  Timothy McGee

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  David McCallum

  Dr. Donald ‘Ducky’ Mallard