LL Cool J posed for photographers on the red carpet at CBS Fest 2026. The 58-year-old rapper-turned-actor returns as Special Agent Sam Hanna in a new NCIS spinoff, “NCIS: New York.” The series is scheduled to premiere in the fall on CBS.
LL, plays a former Navy SEAL returning to his hometown of New York City in the “NCIS” franchise.
The show marks the return of the character LL Cool J originated on NCIS: Los Angeles in 2009. CBS executives announced his return on Wednesday, April 15.
“LL is like a member of the CBS family,” Amy Reisenbach, president of CBS Entertainment, said. “There’s a huge port and Navy presence in New York City. It just makes creative sense. We thought there was so much opportunity with this series.”
Actor Scott Caan will star with LL in the series as Sam Hanna’s “roguish agent” partner.
LL tells PEOPLE that he “never stepped out” of the NCIS world, so Sam Hanna is “a character that I’ve been living and breathing and just bringing to the world” for years.
“I’ve been kind of on and off doing the character all along, whether it was going to Hawaii, whether it was doing the mothership, you know, the original,” he says at CBS Fest on April 15. “I’m just having fun.”
LL acknowledged his return to NCIS on Instagram. He posted an NCISverse video of an iPhone ringing to the “NCIS” theme, with his face on the screen.
