FBI: International has found its next leader of the Fly Team — and he looks very familiar. Deadline announced that actor Jesse Lee Soffer is the new leading man of the CBS procedural, playing an as-yet-unidentified character starting with the Season 4 premiere in Fall 2024. This is one of the more surprising casting moves in recent memory, not only because viewers have barely gotten their heads around the exit of original star Luke Kleintank, but because Soffer was one of the stars of Dick Wolf’s other crime drama Chicago P.D.
Audiences were thrown for a loop when Kleintank announced that he’d be leaving his role of Special Agent Scott Forrester before the end of FBI: International Season 3. The Man in the High Castle alum had been with the show from the very beginning, and didn’t appear at all in the final two episodes of the season. Equally big shockwaves happened last TV season, when Soffer confirmed he was quitting Chicago P.D. and signed off in the middle of Season 10. Now one fan-favorite actor is replacing another… and because of it, FBI: International is going to feel very different.
How Is Jesse Lee Soffer Joining FBI: International?
The Chicago P.D. Star Returns to Wolf Entertainment
Jesse Lee Soffer comes to FBI: International after nine-plus seasons on Chicago P.D. portraying Detective Jay Halstead, a core member of the Intelligence Unit and the brother of Chicago Med character Will Halstead. While the FBI franchise and the One Chicago franchise exist in the same universe — thanks to a crossover in which Jay’s now ex-wife Hailey Upton appeared in an FBI episode — Soffer is not playing Halstead in FBI: International. He’ll be portraying a new character, with no details about that character released yet.
He’s not the first actor to jump from one Dick Wolf-produced franchise to another; S. Epatha Merkerson played Lieutenant Anita Van Buren for over a decade on Law & Order before being cast as Sharon Goodwin on Chicago Med. And Wolf Entertainment is very well-known for picking stars that it’s worked with before to fill big vacancies on its shows; Chicago Fire star Hanako Greensmith appeared on FBI before landing the role of Violet Mikami, in just one example. Jesse Lee Soffer’s casting on FBI: International is shocking because of how he left Chicago P.D. less than a season ago.
Soffer told Variety in 2023 that he was “ready for more,” and that “I really wanted to grow and expand.” That makes it a real surprise that after leaving one Dick Wolf crime drama, his next TV series regular role is on… another Dick Wolf crime drama that’s currently being run by the co-creator of Chicago P.D. He’ll be playing an FBI agent instead of a Chicago police officer, and FBI: International films overseas as opposed to Chicago, but the basic structures of both shows are very similar. It doesn’t seem like much of an opportunity for Soffer to expand his talent, unless the character he plays is wildly different from both Jay Halstead and Kleintank’s hero Scott Forrester.
Plus, there are plenty of Chicago P.D. fans still upset about how Halstead’s departure was written, and how much damage it did to the character of Hailey Upton. Upton’s divorce from Halstead was a major contributor to the struggles that led Upton to quit Intelligence in Season 11. While Jesse Lee Soffer joining the FBI world doesn’t fix what happened on his old show, it might yield some positives in a roundabout way.
What Jesse Lee Soffer Brings to FBI: International
Soffer Follows After Chicago Med’s Colin Donnell
Jesse Lee Soffer’s move to the FBI franchise is also surprising because it seemed like FBI: International was lining up Colin Donnell — who was also formerly in the One Chicago universe. The former Chicago Med star appeared in the final two episodes of FBI: International Season 3, and Donnell did an incredible job filling in as Special Agent Brian Lange. He proved that he fit with the established cast, so to see the series go in another direction is disappointing; it’s possible that logistics were a factor, since the show films overseas and Donnell is based in New York. But he was a strong choice and Soffer’s name probably wasn’t on fans’ minds.
Yet the two do have one big thing in common: they bring their own fan bases. Audiences continue to wax poetic about Donnell’s time as Dr. Connor Rhodes on Med, and Soffer was incredibly popular during his years on Chicago P.D., including having been part of two major ships — with Tracy Spiridakos as Upton and before that, Sophia Bush as Erin Lindsay. The people who still miss Halstead are going to check out at least the FBI: International Season 4 premiere because of Jesse Lee Soffer. If he shows them something interesting enough, they could stay and strengthen the show’s audience; while it’s been a solid ratings performer for CBS, Wolf Entertainment may be looking for something to create a more vocal social media buzz, like One Chicago has on NBC.
Soffer is a known quantity to the producers at a time when FBI: International needs some stability. Similar to what happened with Halstead, the viewers are deservedly annoyed at how Scott Forrester was written out; Kleintank didn’t even have an on-screen farewell. Before that, Heida Reed — who played Forrester’s love interest and right-hand woman Jamie Kellett — also departed. And behind the scenes, there was a change of showrunners, with Chicago P.D. co-creator Matt Olmstead taking over. Not only did Wolf Entertainment hire someone they know is a solid and popular actor, they hired someone that they know Olmstead can work with and write for. Now they have to convince the audience to agree with them.
Can Jesse Lee Soffer Keep FBI: International Successful?
What the Actor Faces Going Into Season 4
The challenge now will be making sure Olmstead and his new star come up with something that doesn’t feel in any way like Jesse Lee Soffer repeating Jay Halstead. Donnell had a clear ability to reinvigorate FBI: International, and he did that during his two episodes. Lange wasn’t Connor Rhodes, he wasn’t Scott Forrester, and he brought a totally different energy to every scene that he appeared in. That opened up new possibilities for the storytelling as a result. But that’s off the table now, and FBI: International Season 4 rests on the shoulders of Jesse Lee Soffer. Can he fit within the Fly Team, and not overshadow the existing actors? Can he do something that can’t be found in any other procedural, including the one that he just spent over 180 episodes on?
And it’s not unfair to say that Soffer might have to convince some skeptics. There are going to be audience members who compare him to Luke Kleintank. There are going to be viewers who have mixed feelings about him signing up for an FBI show relatively soon after leaving Chicago P.D. Some of those people are still going to have the bad taste in their mouths from Jay Halstead impulsively moving to Bolivia. Those feelings are all valid, and Soffer’s best way to handle them is by making a big statement in his first FBI: International episode and getting people excited about what he’s going to do on the Fly Team. He just committed to another multi-year contract — so he clearly saw something in this series that made him willing to do that, and if he can share that intrigue with the audience, he could create new fans for both himself and the entire FBI franchise.
FBI: International Season 4 premieres in Fall 2024 on CBS.
