Sam Hanna is finally getting a team to lead in his hometown, and CBS just told fans who’s joining him.
Jennifer Beals will play Robyn Wells, “the director of the NCIS New York field office who leads with her intuition and is widely respected by her team,” according to the show’s official character description. Wells will serve as the boss to LL Cool J’s Sam Hanna and his new partner, Nick Schaeffer, played by Scott Caan.
Three more actors round out the team: Jacqueline Byers (DARK WINDS) as Special Agent Addy Ross, described as tough and resourceful with something to prove; Shane Harper (POWER BOOK IV: FORCE) as Special Agent Wyatt Hill, a fearless field agent and self-described hopeless romantic; and Devin Druid (13 REASONS WHY) as tech specialist Sean Sullivan.
NCIS: NEW YORK marks the return of LL Cool J’s Sam Hanna, the character he played for 14 seasons on NCIS: LOS ANGELES before that show wrapped in 2023. This time, Hanna heads back to his native New York City to run a field office alongside Caan’s Schaeffer, a self-described “roguish agent,” as the two take on cases meant to protect one of the country’s busiest ports.
Related: CBS Breaks Away from NCIS Formula in New Spinoff
Movieguide® has followed this comeback since it started as a rumor. LL Cool J first slipped back into the role for a guest appearance on NCIS last April, and by that fall, CBS Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach was already talking up a bigger plan.
“LL is like a member of our family at CBS,” Reisenbach said when the series order was announced. “The opportunity for Sam Hanna, who is originally from New York but lived in LA for NCIS: LA, to send him back home felt like a really ripe creative space to play in.”
Fans in the comments of CBS’s announcement were split, with some celebrating LL Cool J and Caan’s pairing and others grumbling about yet another spinoff following the cancellations of NCIS: HAWAI’I and NCIS: TONY & ZIVA.
Byron Balasco, known for KINGDOM, serves as showrunner, with R. Scott Gemmill, who wrote the pilot, also on board as an executive producer. Production begins this month in New York City, and the series will air Tuesdays at 9 p.m. this fall, sandwiched between the flagship NCIS — which welcomes back Michael Weatherly as Tony DiNozzo next season — and the prequel NCIS: ORIGINS. CBS is betting on an entire night of NCIS to anchor its fall schedule.
It’s a reminder of how far the franchise has come since its 2003 debut, and how much loyalty it still commands from viewers who’ve followed characters like Hanna for two decades. For Christian families deciding whether to add another procedural to the rotation, NCIS: NEW YORK will likely carry the franchise’s usual mix of workplace camaraderie and crime-drama violence, so parents should watch an early episode before handing it to younger viewers. Still, there’s something worth noting in a franchise built on loyalty, teamwork and characters who keep choosing to come back for one another, long after the easier path would be to walk away.
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