CBS’ announcement that Jesse Lee Soffer will become a regular on “FBI: International” during Season 4 — replacing the departing Luke Kleintank, whose Scott Forrester was written out at the end of Season 3 — is quite a puzzling twist. That’s not because Soffer doesn’t have the talent to drive a drama on his own but because it’s been well-established that the FBI universe and the One Chicago world share continuity.
Specifically, Hailey Upton herself (Tracy Spiridakos) appears during Season 2 of “FBI,” in “Emotional Rescue.” In the episode, Hailey works with the team when they’re short staffed and quickly figures out that the less-disciplined professional ways she’s honed as a street cop put her at odds with the by-the-book agents who make up the FBI. The “International” team is a globetrotting group of agents who are a different breed than the characters who inhabit its mothership show, the series sharing a strong interconnected network of characters and premises, so it’s dumbfounding to imagine Soffer’s new character showing up without anyone mentioning he looks like Hailey’s ex-husband.
But this won’t mark the first time a One Chicago actor has shown up in the FBI world as an entirely different person.
Another One Chicago actor has appeared in the FBI world
Jesse Lee Soffer won’t be the only former member of the One Chicago world who’s popped up in the FBI universe. Colin Donnell — who played Connor Rhodes from Seasons 1 through 5 of “Chicago Med” and left the series after producers couldn’t find something for his character to do — pops up in the last two episodes of Season 3 of “FBI: International.” The actor plays Brian Lange, a no-nonsense agent who steps in to help the gang find Forrester. With Donnell being one of several actors who appear for the first time in the final episodes of Season 3, it was presumed the show was testing him to take over for Luke Kleintank. There is no mention of how much Donnell looks like Rhodes among the “FBI: International” team.
Perhaps Soffer’s casting isn’t a huge surprise — Dick Wolf is fond of casting the same actors over and over again across his sprawling universes, including his “Law & Order” world, and Soffer surely has proven he can play characters who aren’t Jay Halstead. But it’s still a funny quirk that, if you think long enough about, ends up becoming quite the brain teaser.
