‘NCIS: Hawai’i’ Star Vanessa Lachey Shares Behind-the-Scenes Snap at Important Site

NCIS: Hawai’i officially began filming last month, and series star Vanessa Lachey just gave fans a behind-the-scenes look at one of the major locations of the upcoming show. Over the weekend, Lachey used Instagram to share a photo of herself posing in front of Aloha Stadium in Halawa, her hands on her hips as she smiled at the camera while wearing her character’s uniform.

“Aloha Stadium! I LOVE my job!” she wrote. Aloha Stadium has been closed since December 2020, when it was shuttered due to the pandemic, and it is currently scheduled to be demolished in 2022. Hawaii News Now reports that the stadium, which is 46 years old and seats 50,000, was previously expected to be demolished in 2023, but the new date will allow for quicker construction of a new stadium in the same area. Since the venue has been empty, it is a perfect filming location for the upcoming procedural drama.

Lachey will star on NCIS: Hawai’i as Jane Tennant, the first female Special Agent in Charge of NCIS Pearl Harbor, 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.”

Lachey’s starring role makes the new series the first installment of an NCIS franchise with a female character as its lead. The original NCIS premiered on CBS in 2003, and its first spinoff, NCIS: Los Angeles, arrived in 2009, with NCIS: New Orleans following in 2014. Filming on NCIS: Hawai’i began in June following a traditional Hawaiian blessing on Oahu, held on June 16 at Mokulē’Ia Beach on Oahu and was officiated by Kahu Ramsay Taum. It included traditional royal maile leis, an Oli Aloha, which is a welcoming chant, as well as Pule Ho’oku’u, a closing prayer.

Lachey and fellow cast members Noah Mills, Jason Antoon, Yasmine Al-Bustami and Tori Anderson, and the producers and the NCIS: Hawai’i crew all participated in the ceremony, which was conducted while observing the show’s COVID-19 safety protocols. 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.