‘NCIS: Hawai’i’ Production Starts With Traditional Hawaiian Blessing

Production on NCIS: Hawai’i is officially underway, following a traditional Hawaiian blessing on Oahu. The blessing was held on Wednesday, June 16 at Mokulē’Ia Beach on Oahu and officiated by Kahu Ramsay Taum.

Series stars Vanessa Lachey, Noah Mills, Jason Antoon, Yasmine Al-Bustami and Tori Anderson, as well as the producers and the NCIS: Hawai’i crew, participated in the ceremony, which was conducted while observing the show’s COVID-19 safety protocols. Scroll through for photos of the special event.

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The ceremony included traditional royal maile leis, an Oli Aloha, which is a welcoming chant, as well as Pule Ho’oku’u, a closing prayer. To celebrate the show’s first season, the ceremony focused on “the constant motion of the ocean and how the moving ocean waters, driven by the winds and tides, connects the entire planet,” according to a press release.

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NCIS: Hawai’i is the third spinoff of NCIS, which originally premiered on CBS in 2003 after Mark Harmon’s character, Jethro Gibbs, was introduced in a two-episode arc on JAG. NCIS is currently in its 18th season and its first spinoff, NCIS: Los Angeles, arrived in 2009, with NCIS: New Orleans following in 2014.

NCIS: Hawai’i will focus on the first female Special Agent in Charge of NCIS Pearl Harbor, Jane Tennant (Lachey), who “has thrived and risen through the ranks by equal parts confidence and strategy in a system that has pushed back on her every step of the way. Together with her unwavering team of specialists, they balance duty to family and country while investigating high-stakes crimes involving military personnel, national security and the mysteries of the sun-drenched island paradise itself.”

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The upcoming series is the first installment of an NCIS franchise with a female character as its lead. Jane Tennant is “as diplomatic as she is hard-charging. A woman in a male-dominated profession, she’s thrived in a system that’s pushed back every step of the way through equal parts confidence and strategy. But Tennant is more than just a job and a title. She’s a mother raising her kids mostly on her own. Like any parent who loves their career and their family – she’s a master juggler – balancing the duty to both her children and her country.”

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Other members of Tennant’s team include Lucy (Al-Bustami), the eager, junior member of the team; Ernice (Antoon), NCIS’s Cyber Intelligence Specialist; Kate Whistler (Anderson), an agent of the Defense Intelligence Agency intent on climbing the professional ladder; and Jesse (Mills), a former big city homicide detective who has settled into a new life in Hawai’i.

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NCIS: Hawai’i will premiere this fall and air Mondays at 10 p.m. ET and will also be available to stream live and on demand on the CBS app and Paramount+. You can sign up for Paramount+ with a free trial here.

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