FBI: International is returning to CBS in the 2024 TV schedule, and the fourth season will be the first without Scott Forrester as leader of the Fly Team following Luke Kleintank's departure. The drama brought in another star from the nine-show Dick Wolf TV universe as the new leading man, with Chicago P.D. alum Jesse Lee Soffer playing Supervisory Special Agent Wes Mitchell. Soffer spoke with CinemaBlend about joining a hit show already three full seasons in after a decade in One Chicago and more.
Soffer debuts as Wes Mitchell in the Season 4 premiere, called "A Leader, Not a Tourist," which will see the LA-based SSA chasing a case to Budapest after his partner is shot on the job, and it's a safe bet that the action will escalate. When I spoke with the actor, whose ten-season run on Chicago P.D. ended in late 2022, about how he prepared to step into the lead role of a show that's already ongoing, he shared:
The same way you prepare to do any show, I suppose. You get a sense of who the character is, talk to the writers, talk to showrunner Matt Olmstead, figure out who the guy is, what makes him tick. And since it is a new character coming in, in a leadership position, what's a new energy? What's a new take on things? And Wes is a lot of fun. He's kind of carefree and doesn't always do things by the book. He goes against the grain and doesn't like procedure, and all those things make for fun story and fun episodes.
Working with showrunner Matt Olmstead was actually a reunion for Jesse Lee Soffer, as Olmstead was a co-creator and showrunner of Chicago P.D. for the first four seasons. It takes more than just a behind-the-scenes reunion to prepare to star in an ongoing show, though, so did the actor go back and watch earlier episodes of International? I asked that very question, and he confirmed:
I did! I watched a lot. I missed some of Season 2. I watched a lot of Season 1, a lot of Season 3 just to get a sense of the show, the characters, the action. What am I getting myself into? What's Budapest like? The normal stuff.
Fans may know a thing or two about binge-watching FBI: International, especially if they have a Paramount+ subscription. The question of what he was getting himself into was certainly a big one. After all, between Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D., he'd spent nearly a full decade playing the same character, and FBI: International is his first acting credit since leaving P.D. (He directed two episodes of his former show over the past couple of years.)
While Soffer has a message for Chicago P.D. fans who are on the fence about FBI: International, it's already clear enough that Wes Mitchell will be a new kind of character for him even though he's returning to the Dick Wolf TV universe. Wes also isn't going to be Scott Forrester 2.0. I asked Soffer how the two compare after he'd watched the earlier seasons, and he responded:
I hadn't really compared the two of them in my head. Wes is going by the beat of his own drum. He's doing his own thing, and when you meet him, his partner's been shot, and so he's man on a mission. He's a man on fire. And then he has this big life choice to make about either going home to all this grief and this loss, or looking forward and moving through it and focusing on work.
Considering that Jesse Lee Soffer is FBI: International's newest series regular and not a guest star like Chicago Med alum Colin Donnell was back in the spring, it's pretty safe to say that he'll be sticking with the Fly Team. The actor continued:
He's a worker. He enjoys work. He loves work. That's kind of what I, as an actor, put my focus on. He loves this job, and he's going to enjoy it while he's doing it. That's the energy that Wes brings to the show.
It should be interesting to see how that energy from Wes gels – or doesn't gel – with the rest of the Fly Team as Season 4 continues. Vo was stepping up as a leader with Forrester's encouragement in Season 3; now, somebody from the outside is coming in. There have certainly been cast changes on International before, but never the boss. For now, check out a sneak peek at what to expect from Jesse Lee Soffer as SSA Wes Mitchell:
The Season 4 premiere of FBI: International airs on Tuesday, October 15 at 9 p.m. ET, between FBI's Season 7 premiere at 8 p.m. ET and FBI: Most Wanted's Season 6 premiere at 10 p.m. ET, all on CBS. If you want to revisit how the third season ended to set up a major change for the Fly Team, you can find those episodes streaming on Paramount+.
