EXCLUSIVE: CBS has unveiled the first trailer for the new FBI spinoff series CIA, starring Tom Ellis and Nick Gehlfuss as odd-couple partners in fighting crime. CIA premieres February 23 at 10 p.m. ET/PT, following a new episode of FBI.
In CIA, when by-the-book FBI Special Agent Bill Goodman (Gehlfuss) is loaned out to a clandestine CIA/FBI task force, he finds himself teamed with secretive and roguish CIA Agent Colin Glass (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 Necar Zadegan as Deputy Chief of Station Nikki Reynard and Natalee Linez as CIA Analyst Gina Gosian.
As we revealed Wednesday, there will be multiple crossovers between the two FBI Universe shows this year. 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, Zadegan’s Reynard will visit her counterparts at the FBI.
Ellis and Gehlfuss help set up the trailer (above) and the show’s first season in our Q&A below.
CIA “Directed Energy”
Pictured (L-R): Tom Ellis and Nick Gehlfuss
Mark Schafer/CBS
DEADLINE: Tom, you have a knack for picking fun and interesting characters throughout your career. What was it about the character of Colin Glass that made you want to play him?
TOM ELLIS: What really attracted me to Colin was that you never really know what you’re getting from him. You don’t know whether you’re getting the truth or not, because he predominantly deals in lies. His ability to be who he needs to be in the moment, I thought, was a great opportunity to have a lot of fun. I think Colin’s resting spy face is actually quite serious and grumpy, but his ability to be charming whenever he needs to be, to be American whenever he needs to be, there’s a lot there for the character to be able to draw from.
DEADLINE: Nick, as someone who followed your work on Chicago Med, seeing you as Bill Goodman feels a little like you’re Superman, two sides of the same coin. When the hair is let loose, and he’s in scrubs, that’s Will Halstead. Comb it to the side and wear a suit, that’s Bill Goodman. What say you?
NICK GEHLFUSS: You said it, and I love it. I’m going from a Will to a Bill here. No, you know, it’s very different from Will, in the sense that Bill follows the rules. He’s “By the Book Bill,” and Will was much more like Colin, in a sense, maybe not as devious. He doesn’t deal with lies, of course, but he just does whatever he needs to do for his patients. I think there’s the same devotion to keeping his country safe and committing himself to the country, which is Bill, and I love his moral compass. What I’m really excited about is, because of what’s needed and demanded of him for this new fusion cell that these two are together in— and because he becomes a fan of Colin and learns to respect him — his moral compass may need to shift a bit.
ELLIS: He has to adapt a little bit.
GEHLFUSS: And you know, maybe the hair gets a little looser one day, maybe, or he might not shave one morning. [Laughs]
ELLIS: Just remember, there’s power in the parting.
DEADLINE: Tom, with all the back and forth from Colin keeping his lies straight, I don’t know that I trust anyone who says he’s really FBI or CIA. I’m thinking that 10 seasons from now, in the series finale, it will be revealed that he was MI5, or something very Mission: Impossible, the whole time.
GEHLFUSS: Hey, that’s a good idea.
DEADLINE: Thanks! Tom, is that something you guys will play around with on the show, where Colin’s loyalties lie?
ELLIS: One of the things we’d like to do is try to keep the audience guessing a little bit. The way that we’ve shot the show, we’re trying to give people a sort of voyeuristic experience, because the CIA essentially is that. They’re a voyeuristic agency, and they’re watching from afar all the time. That’s what we’re trying to achieve with this.
GEHLFUSS: This is a new template of sorts. Wolf Entertainment are first responder, forward storytelling, so these types of genres have been around. But we really are forging new territory here with CIA, and it’s really exciting because it’s new and unique. And because of the world that Tom has been talking about, it’s really interesting to figure out how this differs from even the new FBI franchise. As you know, we’re going to be there, and they’re trying to have some crossovers between CIA and FBI. And, we’ll see what happens if they add a third show and try to make it like a One Chicago thing as well.
CIA “Directed Energy”
Pictured (L-R): Jeremy Sisto as Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jubal Valentine and Nick Gehlfuss as Special Agent Bill Goodman.
Mark Schafer/CBS
DEADLINE: Fans are going to love seeing Jeremy Sisto in the premiere. What did it mean to you to have him there, welcoming you to the franchise, in a sense, as his character, FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jubal Valentine?
GEHLFUSS: He’s awesome. Jeremy’s great. He works similarly to us. He wants to get it right, and we’ll talk about the scene to death, maybe even after we’re done filming it. He’s coming over, and he wants to do a good job to help us with our show.
ELLIS: It was really nice and so cool. He was quite excited to be on a different set as the same character. He said it was quite a strange experience to start with. It was lovely for us to have someone who knows their character so well and has been so established to come in and really play off, so early in the piece for us as well, when we’re finding our feet with the show. He’s lovely. Jeremy’s a really nice guy.
DEADLINE: You guys were already friends coming into the series. Would you say that helped you create these CIA characters, who are often at odds?
ELLIS: It kind of was. It was kind of strange. Like when we did a chemistry screen test for it, but it wasn’t the regular kind, standing in front of a blue screen in front of one camera. We had a mini crew, and we went out on location in New York to shoot a couple of dummy scenes. It was pretty seamless. We just kind of fell into it, and we started doing it and finding the beat immediately. And we’re enjoying the process of working together, and everything just fell into place.
Executive producers of CIA include Dick Wolf, Mike Weiss, Ken Girotti, Paul Cabbad, Nicole Perlman, David Chasteen, Anastasia Puglisi and Peter Jankowski. The series is produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, in association with Wolf Entertainment and CBS Studios.
This interview was edited and condensed for length and clarity.
