‘NCIS’ Alum Scottie Thompson Joining ‘NCIS: Los Angeles,’ But in a New Role

One NCIS alum is returning to the CBS family, as TVLine reported on Jan. 27. More specifically, Scottie Thompson, who previously appeared on NCIS as Jeanne Benoit, will be taking her talents to NCIS: Los Angeles for a springtime episode of the series. What’s really interesting about Thompson’s involvement on NCIS: Los Angeles is that she will not be reprising her role as Jeanne. Instead, the actor will be playing an entirely new character.

According to TVLine, Thompson will be playing Sarah Raines, an agent for the Defense Intelligence Agency who is working on an investigation into unidentified aerial phenomena sightings (in short, UFOs). Agent Raines is described as being “confident, all-business and a bit cynical” and will work with the NCIS team in Los Angeles to investigate the disappearance of her superior.

Thompson previously appeared in a number of NCIS episodes from 2006 to 2016. Her character Jeanne was a doctor, arms dealer’s daughter and even had a romantic connection with Michael Weatherly‘s DiNozzo. In light of this casting news, Thompson took to Twitter to share her excitement over returning to the NCIS family.

Ahead of the premiere of Season 11 in September 2019, executive producer R. Scott Gemmill spoke out about what fans can expect in the upcoming season of NCIS: Los Angeles. Interestingly enough, he even commented on the possibility of bringing in some new faces for the established cast to play off of.

“It’s so funny. Every year, we tend to come back with a plan, and for many reasons, those plans go awry because of things that are beyond our control in terms of actor availability, if someone gets ill, or someone’s pregnant, and so, this year, we didn’t have a really solid plan because we were waiting for the other shoe to drop, and actually, everything stayed pretty cool,” Gemmill told Parade.

“We haven’t made a commitment to anyone yet because we’re seeing what works and what doesn’t,” he added at the time. “We’ve always taken that approach, where we don’t really make a huge, long commitment. I think it’s good to have someone in for an episode, see how they get along with everyone. We’re a family that’ve been together for 10 years. I know it’s hard when someone brings home the new girl or the new guy to meet the family, and so, we’re respectful of that. We let someone come in and see if this is a place that they’re going to be comfortable, and are they going to like to play with us on a daily basis.”