LL Cool J‘s NCIS character, Sam Hanna, is returning to the franchise with a spinoff set in New York City — but who makes up the rest of the show’s cast?
In Us‘ exclusive clip from the Tuesday, October 6, premiere, Nick Schaeffer (Scott Caan) introduces Sam to the “main brain” of a team of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service based in New York City.
Addy Ross (Jacqueline Byers) is described as aggressive, smart and a little mean, to which she replies, “Only when provoked.” Wyatt Sellers (Shane Harper), meanwhile, is a transplant from Alaska.
“[He’s] never been around tall buildings, and his fiancée just left,” Nick adds. “We call him Milkman. [He likes a glass] at dinner at a restaurant. Twenty ounces of whole milk in a glass was really disgusting.”
Sean Sullivan (Devin Druid), who is an NCIS Technical Operator, is called weird with a “broken moral compass.”
“But he’s good at his job when he puts in the effort,” Nick says before urging Sean to shake Sam’s hand.
LL Cool J’s character was introduced in 2009 during season 6 of NCIS. He went on to become the colead of NCIS: Los Angeles that fall alongside Chris O’Donnell, who played his partner.
After NCIS: Los Angeles ended in 2023 following 14 seasons, LL Cool J, 58, moved to NCIS: Hawai’i with a two-episode arc during season 2. The actor was upgraded to a series regular for season 3 in 2024, which ended up being the show’s final season.
LL Cool J returned to NCIS multiple times after NCIS: Los Angeles ended. He appeared on seasons 20 and 22, most recently having a two-episode arc during season 23 in 2026.
“New York is our most iconic city. It’s incredible, and it’s just really a microcosm of the whole country right here in one place with all of the diversity, the different boroughs, the different cultures all colliding and somehow managing to function together,” showrunner Byron Balasco exclusively told Us. “That’s why you make a show here.”
Balasco acknowledged that filming in New York came with highlights — and challenges.
“The weather is a challenge because you just don’t know what’s going to happen. But that’s it. That’s just a problem to solve,” he shared. “And the highlights are you can really put your camera anywhere and point it anywhere and something interesting is happening. We can go to a neighborhood that we write about and shoot there.”
He continued: “We always try to do that to keep it as authentic as possible because you really want people to feel like they’re at the ground level on the streets in the city with our guys. It feels lived in. The cliche is that New York is a character in the show, but we really do want to make it feel that way.”
NCIS: NY also attempted to find a balance between crossovers with other shows in the franchise, with Balasco adding, “We’ve been trusted with this smash global franchise, and so our goal is to deliver on that. But we really want this show to have a reason to exist on its own so that if you took the NCS off it, you’d still love the show.”
Balasco hinted that NCIS: New York will appeal to CBS viewers regardless of whether they have seen other NCIS shows.
“Our goal is to make a show that has the DNA of the universe but is its own thing. We’ll be cross-pollinating with other shows. But right now it’s about our characters and our stories and really getting it up on its feet and having people fall in love with the characters,” he concluded.
Caan, 50, spoke with Us as well about getting into the role of Nick.
“I just try to do our best at making scene by scene interesting and fun. I don’t think of the grand universe of it. I don’t even really think about the big picture. I just think how do we make every scene interesting and worth watching,” he said. “I played a cop a lot. Training for me is rehearsal.”
NCIS: New York premieres on CBS Tuesday, October 6, at 9 p.m. ET before streaming the next day on Paramount+.
