We may have had to say goodbye to NCIS: Los Angeles in May 2023, with a finale that left a bit up in the air, namely what would happen on the mission to rescue Hetty. But the good news is one of the characters in that operation is now on NCIS: Hawai’i. So, might we get an update on Hetty from Sam Hanna (LL COOL J)?
“It remains to be seen, right? There’s a lot of things that are going to happen. I mean, this is the cool thing about the NCISverse,” LL COOL J tells TV Insider. “The focus is Hawai’i, but Sam does have that backstory and we’ll see if it gets addressed. People just have to tune in. But there’s some fun stuff happening, for sure.”
He has the “same answer” when it comes to hearing about the lives of the rest of the LA team, including Callen (Chris O’Donnell), Kensi (Daniela Ruah), and Deeks (Eric Christian Olsen).
“We’ve got to leave you guys guessing a little bit,” adds Vanessa Lachey, whose Jane Tennant leads the Hawai’i team. “But what I will say is, and we’ve talked about this before, the NCIS franchise loves to listen to their fans. They really do take it to heart, and they want to give the fans what they want. We are a constant evolving show, and we always love surprises. So it wouldn’t surprise us if the script goes this way, and we are here for it. I mean, I just brought Sam Hanna to Hawai’i. Anything can happen.”
The Hawai’i team does know the agents from OSP (Office of Special Projects), thanks to the three-show crossover last season, so it would be quite easy to work a mention of someone—or what Sam had been up to before heading to the island—into a conversation. And they’ll likely have plenty of time to do that in the 10-episode third season as well. We don’t know how many episodes LL COOL J will be in (he’s credited as a special guest star), but as Lachey put it, “If you had Sam Hanna in Hawai’i, would you let that go? Or would you utilize the beast of Sam Hanna?”
