LL Cool J, whose real name is James Todd Smith, might be coming back to NCIS.
Cool J briefly returned as agent Sam Hanna in April 21’s Season 22: Episode 18, “After the Storm.” The episode ended with room for him to return to NCIS.
“Seeing your team, working shoulder to shoulder with them, reminded me how much I missed it,” he’d explained to NCIS director Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll) in the episode.
“There’s always a place for you back at NCIS,” Vance replied.
In NCIS: LA, Sam put together a team to rescue his old boss, Hetty Lange.
“I wish we could have done more of that,” executive producer and showrunner Steven D. Binder told TV Insider. “We were trying to service all the characters, so we didn’t necessarily create a story per se about one of the characters. And I’m getting the impression that that was a command decision fail on my part.”
He affirmed that Cool J is always welcome back on NCIS, as well as all the other cast.
“It’s just people have very busy schedules, especially he does. So making it work is a logistical challenge and probably the bottleneck more than anything to why you may or may not see more,” he said. “Not because there’s not a desire and a will, just because scheduling is very difficult.”
“Todd showed up in [Episode 18],” he explained. “From Episode 1, we were like, ‘OK, when can we make this work?’”
When PEOPLE asked Cool J why he was returning to NCIS, ahead of his April episode, he said he couldn’t say no.
“I like the character, he’s beloved and it’s so fun playing him. I don’t see why I wouldn’t come back,” he said.
Of his guest episode, he said, “It has all the same chemistry that people love plus more action, thrills, and suspense. It’s a big episode for the flagship show. You get a little extra dessert with dinner.”
When he revealed his return to fans on social media, he said that being on set was “like no time had passed.”
Cool J recently had some fun reprising his role in NCIS: HAWAI’I.
“It just felt right to me,” he said. “It felt like, ‘You know what? Let’s have some fun. Let’s do this.’ ”
While there’s no guarantee that Cool J will be back for more NCIS, it seems like he’d be open to it. NCIS’s executive director definitely is.
