Scott Caan is part of the new chapter LL Cool J is opening for Sam Hanna. The 55-year-old said at the NCIS: New York premiere on Thursday, Oct. 1, that the role still feels fresh after 17 years.
“Because we're still finding new things and exploring new things and being introduced to new aspects of the character,” he said. “So natural in the sense that I know who Sam is, but still new in the sense that I'm still being surprised every day.”
The original NCIS premiered in 2003, and Sam Hanna entered the franchise in 2009 when NCIS: Los Angeles launched. That history gives the new run a different kind of weight: LL Cool J is not rebuilding the character from scratch, he is carrying a long-running one into NCIS: New York.
Intrepid Museum premiere night
The NCIS: New York premiere took place at the Intrepid Museum, and the timing matters. LL Cool J was talking about a character he has played for 17 years at the exact moment the franchise was asking viewers to meet him in a new setting, with Scott Caan identified in a photo caption as Nick Schaeffer. Jennifer Beals joins NCIS New York cast with LL Cool J and Scott Caan adds another name to the launch, but the bigger story is that the center of gravity remains Sam.
“Life is about learning, right? … If you're not getting better, you're getting worse, right?” he said. “And so, you know, like the real gift is like reading one book for four or five years straight because you learn more. That's how you become a black belt in a specific book as opposed to reading it once and putting it down, right?”
Sam Hanna for 17 years
That view explains why the character has not gone stale. LL Cool J described the role as something he knows well and still has to study, which is a sharper business reality than a simple nostalgia play. A franchise that can keep introducing new sides of a veteran character has a better chance of holding attention than one that only trades on memory.
“By playing this character and watching this human being go through all of these various, you know, peaks, valleys and everything in between, [you] learn more about yourself. You know what I'm saying? That's life,” he said. The line also points to the practical appeal of NCIS: New York: viewers are not just getting a familiar name, but a lead who is still being written as a moving target. Jennifer Beals Joins Ncis: New York With LL Cool J, Scott Caan fits that same launch momentum around the series.
CBS on Tuesday, Oct. 6
NCIS: New York premieres on CBS on Tuesday, Oct. 6, from 9-10 p.m. ET/PT and streams on Paramount+. For viewers, that means the next chapter in Sam Hanna’s run arrives with the franchise’s familiar structure intact, but with LL Cool J framing the character as something still being discovered rather than simply repeated.
