EXCLUSIVE: The “FBI” Universe will feature more cross-office collaborations among its offices, in addition to FBI‘s Jeremy Sisto’s appearance in the CIA premiere on February 23 at 10 p.m. ET/PT, following a new episode of FBI.
Alana De La Garza and Missy Peregrym, who play Special Agent in Charge Isobel Castille and FBI Special Agent Maggie Bell on FBI, respectively, will appear on CIA this season. On the other side, Necar Zadegan’s CIA character Deputy Chief of Station Nikki Reynard will visit her counterparts at the FBI.
When by-the-book FBI Special Agent Bill Goodman (Nick Gehlfuss) is loaned out to a clandestine CIA/FBI task force on the new CBS series CIA, he finds himself teamed up with secretive and roguish CIA Agent Colin Glass (Tom Ellis). Together, they will work on covert operations in New York, uncovering international plots, terrorist cells, and geopolitical secrets.
Bill will learn the rules of this murky world on the fly as Colin leads him deeper into spy games where only one thing is clear – their work keeps America safe, even if no one will ever know what they did in the shadows.
The series also stars Natalee Linez as CIA Analyst Gina Gosian.
Mike Weiss, executive producer and showrunner of FBI and CIA, spoke to Deadline about why the cast crossing over between both shows makes sense, teases if fans could see more crossovers later in the season—perhaps at the big Scola-Chase wedding?—and what it’s been like writing for leads Tom Ellis and Nick Gehlfuss, whose characters do an extraordinary job of channeling the Odd Couple.
CIA “Elimination Game”
Pictured (L-R): Nick Gehlfuss as Special Agent Bill Goodman, Tom Ellis as CIA Case Officer Colin Glass, and Alana De La Garza as Special Agent in Charge Isobel Castille.
Mark Schafer/CBS
DEADLINE: Mike, I’ve always heard crossovers are difficult to put together. How are you able to do multiple FBI and CIA crossovers with such ease?
MIKE WEISS: It’s because we have amazing line producers who keep the trains on the tracks. None of this fun world-building would be possible without amazing collaborators like our FBI producer, Amanda Slater, and CIA producer, Paul Cabbad, and the hardworking teams that support them.
DEADLINE: How do you feel the franchise and the fans benefit from these crossovers?
WEISS: Fans get to see their favorite characters flex their muscles in cases and in situations that can differ from their work in their ordinary worlds. And we get to expand the universe of BOTH shows – the CIA and FBI might be racing to keep people safe from various threats, but in crossing characters over, we get to show that both agencies are hard at work in the same city, on the same timeline, in the same shared reality. That’s fun! Isn’t it?
DEADLINE: What can you tease regarding how you’re distributing the characters per episode? Are Missy and Alana doing one episode of CIA, or will each be in their own? Will Necar appear in one episode of FBI? Help!
WEISS: It’s impossible to say. Ultimately, we’re trying to tell the best story possible. Sometimes, to do that, you’ll see characters overlap, but this isn’t math.
CIA “Elimination Game”
Pictured (L-R): Missy Peregrym as Special Agent Maggie Bell, Nick Gehlfuss as Special Agent Bill Goodman, and Tom Ellis as CIA Case Officer Colin Glass
Mark Schafer/CBS
DEADLINE: CIA is a new show and part of the FBI Universe. I’ve seen comments before about how doing crossovers so early feels gimmicky to some. How do you feel about this?
WEISS: Gimmicky? It’s good, clean fun. And in reality, there are tons of inter-agency crossover and collaboration, so it makes perfect sense to me that our heroes would bump into each other frequently. I think that after two minutes with our CIA stars, the audience will be all in, even without an endorsement from their trusted FBI favorites.
DEADLINE: What can you share about the decision to have Jeremy Sisto appear in the premiere of CIA? It’s exciting to see King Jubal welcome Bill and Colin to the franchise, in a sense.
WEISS: Well, it was organic to the story. When Necar Zadegan, in the CIA pilot, needs a top-flight FBI agent to allow her team to operate in the U.S., she turns to her FBI counterpart for a recommendation. Of course, Jeremy is great throughout the pilot and is fantastic with Necar. King Jubal – that’s new to me… wonder if we can get that on-air…?
DEADLINE: Could we count on more crossovers this season, or is this it?
WEISS: I won’t say yet, but it all comes down to story and what helps us craft the best individual stories for the CIA and the FBI, respectively. The best part of the job is getting to work with amazing people on both shows. Lucky for us, these actors are always happy to pitch in wherever they’re needed.
DEADLINE: The reason I ask is that it would be nice to see CIA folks as guests at the FBI’s biggest event of the year, the Scola and Chase wedding. Will that be happening?
WEISS: Impossible to say, you’ll have to tune in on February 23.
CIA “Directed Energy”
Pictured: Necar Zadegan as Deputy Chief of Station Nikki Reynard
Zach Dilgard/CBS
DEADLINE: The characters of Colin and Bill work so well together that they give off an Odd Couple vibe. Do you and the writers take inspiration from Nick and Tom? I can see some similarities between the personalities.
WEISS: In any show, you’re always trying to synthesize character and actor. Written story with lived experience. Luckily for us, we’ve got two guys who can so believably play polar opposites – driving each other crazy even as they save the day, and each other. As soon as any director calls cut though, they drop that part of the act. They’ve become fast friends. It’s a joy to work with them both. Not to speak for them, but they’re having so much fun bringing the yin and yang of Bill and Colin to life.
DEADLINE: Many of us were sad to say goodbye to FBI: International and FBI: Most Wanted last year. Thinking about all these new crossovers, is it possible for a character from the franchise to return even if their show is no longer on the air? I know Jesse Lee Soffer was up for the role of Bill in the early days of CIA‘s development. Could he technically come back as his International character Supervisory Special Agent Wesley “Wes” Mitchel, if you wanted to revive it?
WEISS: I’m genuinely curious as well! I kid, of course. The rules are that this is a real universe. So that, somewhere out there, Wes Mitchell is still hunting down bad guys and closing FBI cases. If an actor did come back, they’d be returning as their former FBI character. I think if they didn’t, we’d hear about it from the fans. They’re watching closely – and we love that they are.
Dick Wolf, Mike Weiss, Ken Girotti, Paul Cabbad, Nicole Perlman, David Chasteen, Anastasia Puglisi, and Peter Jankowski executive produce. CIA is produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, in association with Wolf Entertainment and CBS Studios.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.