FBI Spinoff Officially Recasts Major Character With NCIS Star After Cast Exit Shake-Up

FBI’s upcoming spinoff, CIA, officially recasts a major character with a former NCIS star. After taking over a whole primetime block for several years, the FBI franchise opened 2025-2026 network TV cycle with a significantly slimmed-down offering, only having the flagship in its roster. Ahead of last cycle’s end, CBS made the decision to FBI: Most Wanted and FBI: International despite being some of the most-watched shows in their programming.

This wasn’t the network’s original plan, however. CBS wanted to launch FBI‘s new expansion show in the fall, but that clearly didn’t happen because of production woes. After signing Tom Ellis for the lead role for CIA, Wolf Entertainment and CBS struggled to round out the rest of the ensemble. Eventually, they landed on Nick Gehlfuss as FBI Special Agent Bill Goodman as his partner, and they are joined by Natalee Linez and Michael Michele.

However, in light of Michele’s exit from the show, Deadline reports that CBS has officially recast the role of CIA‘s Chief of Station with Necar Zadegan. Fans would know the actor from her role as Agent Hannah Khoury in NCIS: New Orleans and Dalia Hassan in 24 season 8. She made her debut on Broadway in the Pulitzer Prize–nominated production, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo.

On top of the cast shake-up for CIA, the FBI spinoff has also lost major players behind the camera. Warren Leight exited the project as its showrunner after he replaced the show’s original one, David Hudgins, back in July. Meanwhile, executive producer and director Eriq La Salle has departed the procedural as well. Now, FBI showrunner Mike Weiss is expected to take over showrunning duties for the offshoot.

According to reports, production for CIA has been on hiatus for two weeks now, and while it’s unclear when it will resume, casting Zadegan and tagging Weiss should allow the process to move forward. Like FBI, the new project also films in New York. What’s curious now is whether this will be straight-up recasting or if Zadegan will play a different character who takes over the Chief’s position.

Regardless of how CBS and Wolf Entertainment want to approach the situation, it seems like they are confident that they will be able to hit its confirmed winter premiere date. CIA has been in production since September, so it’s safe to say that it has enough material for the pilot episode. FBI season 9 has been dropping hints about the existence of the CIA in the storytelling universe. Hopefully, this leads to a crossover that would help the spinoff more easily establish itself as part of the franchise.