The moment Scott Caan was announced as the co-lead in the new NCIS spinoff, NCIS: New York, fans of NCIS: Los Angeles went: wait, what? Not because Caan is a bad choice for someone to banter with our Sam Hanna (LL Cool J), but because we know he’s not. He’s already bantered with Sam! And he was playing a different character back then.
Yes, that’s right. Anyone who’s been a fan of the franchise for a while remembers that NCIS: Los Angeles had a crossover episode with Hawaii Five-0 all the way back in 2012. Well, a two-night crossover event. The storyline saw G. Callen (Chris O’Donnell) and Sam Hanna travel to Hawai’i, where they appeared in Hawaii Five-0 Season 2, Episode 21, “Pa Make Loa.”
Later, Caan’s character, Detective Danny Williams, and Lieutenant Chin Ho Kelly (Daniel Dae Kim) travel to Los Angeles to continue the story in NCIS: Los Angeles Season 3, Episode 21 “Touch of Death.”
Not saying I remember perfectly because the episode after is one of my favorite NCISLA episodes ever, but also not saying otherwise.
Funnily enough, Caan’s character shared more than one scene with Sam Hanna in that crossover. So, that means the character of Danno already exists in the NCISverse. Which is why those of us with long memories were wondering if he would play the same character.
The answer is no. Caan is playing NCIS Special Agent Nick Schaeffer, a brand new character to NCIS: New York. Which means we’re just going to have to ignore the fact that this new character looks exactly like that one guy Sam worked on a case with years ago. To be fair, it has been over a decade. Maybe Sam forgot, even if we didn’t.
And if not, well, I hope the show throws a joke or two in there about it. It’s the least those of us who remember this crossover deserve.
NCIS: New York will air this Fall on CBS.
