Missing the cast of NCIS: Los Angeles following the series finale? One of the show’s stars Daniela Ruah teased the possibility of returning to the franchise in the future. Is Kensi Blye going to NCIS Hawai’i after Los Angeles’ cancellation? Here’s everything that we know.
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NCIS: Los Angeles officially ended with an emotional Season 14 finale on May 21, 2023. The show was the initial spin-off of NCIS and followed the Office of Special Projects (OSP) in Los Angeles which specialized in undercover assignments and apprehending dangerous criminals. Starring LL Cool J and Chris O’Donnell, the show premiered in September 2009 and aired for 14 years. NCIS: LA was the fifth longest-running CBS primetime scripted series but was cancelled by CBS in 2023.
Ruah played NCIS special agent Kensi Blye on NCIS: Los Angeles from 2009 until the show’s last season in 2023. The actress spoke about the best part of playing Byle in an October 2022 interview with Smashing Interviews. “The best part of playing her is the fact that she’s a flawed human being like anyone is, and she grows from her mistakes. She’s intelligent. She’s fiercely independent, but after all these years, I think she’s grown to understand that it’s okay to emotionally depend on someone else,” she explained. “Her own traumas of losing her dad, not having a present mom, running away from home as a teenager, living on the street for a while, gave her a sense of no one’s going to give anything to you. You’ve got to go for it yourself and depend on yourself.”
She also called her castmates – who she has worked alongside for 14 years – her family. “I love the team we have. I love the cast. I love the crew. We’re a family at this point. You break bread with your cast and crew. Crew members were at my wedding,” she said of her costars, which include LL Cool J, O’Donnell, Eric Christian Olsen, Marty Deeks, Nell Jones, Henrietta Lange and more. “They were there when I met my husband (Olsen’s brother/stunt double David Paul Olsen), and they were there when I was pregnant with my kids in season five and eight. They were sending me messages when I had the kids. We’re all very, very close.”
So, is Daniela Ruah going to NCIS: Hawai’i like LL Cool J? Read on to find out.
Is Kensi Blye going to NCIS: Hawai’i after NCIS: Los Angeles’ cancellation?
Kensi Blye going to NCIS: Hawai’i after Los Angeles’ cancellation? The answer is maybe! In July 2023, our sister site TVLine asked Ruah if she would ever reprise her role as Kensi. She responded: “If I get asked, I will certainly figure it out at the time,” adding, “If it makes sense, why not, right?”
The last time we saw Byle on NCIS: Los Angeles, her character found out that she and Deeks (Eric Olsen) were going to finally become parents. Ruah admitted in an interview with TVLine that she was “so happy” with her character’s baby news. “I was elated because I think that these characters deserve everything and more. They’re good people, they fight for good, they fight for the betterment of the world, they’re selfless, and they’ve grown and matured so much in these last 14 years,” she explained.
When asked by TVLine why he held back on Kensi’s pregnancy until the finale, showrunner R. Scott Gemmil responded: “Probably because I would have had to deal with it next season in terms of what that means — if they have a baby, what’s the reality of having two people in a dangerous job where you could lose both parents in any single episode? So I would have held that off. That was probably going to be something we did whenever the show ended.”
Ruah got emotional while reflecting on the show’s impact on her life. “My whole life, Matt, happened on this show,” she said. “I met lifelong friends. I met my husband. I had my children, bought my first house, got to live in an incredibly crazy city….”
The actress could follow in the footsteps of NCIS: LA star LL Cool J, who will be joining the cast of Hawai’i’s Season 3 as a recurring guest star. “Couldn’t keep Sam Hanna off the case for too long!! Starting tonight, Sam Hanna will join forces with the @NCISHawaiiCBS team as a recurring guest star in the upcoming third season,” LL Cool J revealed on Twitter in a May 2023 post, which was accompanied by a photo of him and Hawai’i frontrunner Vanessa Lachey.
Lacey was excited to welcome LL Cool J to the Hawai’i family – and we assume she’ll feel the same if writers decide to bring Kensi back too. “One of the most beautiful things about working on NCIS: Hawai’i is the show’s ability to bring the franchise together. We have had so much fun spreading the aloha to NCIS and NCIS: LA with the triple crossover,” Lachey said in a statement obtained by our Variety. “Now, we have the amazing opportunity to bring Sam Hanna to Hawai’i to help the island solve some cases and maybe have a few laughs in the process. Welcome to the ohana, Todd! It’s going to be a fun ride!”
NCIS: Hawaiʻi is the fourth spin-off in the NCIS universe. The show premiered in 2021 and just concluded its second season. In February 2023, CBS announced that NCIS: Hawaiʻi was renewed for a third season for 2023-2024, according to our sister publication, Deadline. Lachey is the first female and Asian American to lead an NCIS franchise.
NCIS: Los Angeles is available to stream on Paramount Plus, Prime Video and Apple TV.
Guess what? NCIS is getting another spin-off after LA’s cancellation! Check out our gallery below of the cast of the full cast of NCIS: Sydney.
