Take an inside look at CIA, the latest crime procedural from legendary producer Dick Wolf
Over the past few decades, writer and producer Dick Wolf has carved out a singular niche within the television landscape. As creator of the Law & Order, Chicago and FBI franchises, his series continue to attract millions of viewers each week, and another has arrived.
A spinoff of FBI, CIA focuses on an unlikely duo: fast-talking, rule-breaking CIA agent Colin Glass (Lucifer’s Tom Ellis) and straight-arrow FBI agent Bill Goodman (Nick Gehlfuss of Chicago Med). When a top-secret weapon is stolen from a defence contractor in an audacious robbery, the two are assigned to get to the bottom of it. “Their new partnership gets off to a rocky start,” notes the synopsis, “but they soon realize their opposing viewpoints may be their greatest asset.”
As showrunner Mike Weiss explains, it’s the polar-opposite personalities of the two protagonists — and the corresponding differences in their respective agencies’ approach to law enforcement — that becomes the engine driving the show. “I think that one of the benefits of making a show about the CIA is that a lot of the activities are secret, they’re shadowy, and I think that this is an opportunity to have that way of working butt up against the FBI, which is very much a by-the-book, traditional, patriotic, out-in-the-open, sunshine-is-the-best-disinfectant style of law enforcement,” he says. “For better or worse, there are a lot of really creative bad guys out there who keep themselves and the FBI and the CIA busy.”
According to star Ellis, who spent six seasons playing the rakish fallen angel at the centre of Lucifer, CIA operative Colin Glass is very much cut from the same cloth. “I think Colin is two steps ahead of everybody else — or at least he thinks he is,” says Ellis. “I’d say the biggest contrast between him and Lucifer is that Lucifer prided himself on the fact that he never lied, whereas Colin predominantly only deals in lies . . .”
Ellis had been attached to the project from the get-go, but finding the right actor to play his FBI counterpart took a lot of searching. It wasn’t until Weiss saw Gehlfuss’ audition, however, that he realized he’d found the perfect foil for Ellis. “Tom is a dashing, handsome perfectionist, and you know, you only compare him with a certain type of actor, if you’re going to be able to have a real dynamic with someone who can go toe to toe with him,” says Weiss. “We knew from the beginning that this was going to be a show with a strong male friendship that’s going to start out as conflict and eventually grow into trust of all different kinds. Someone you can eventually trust with your secrets. Someone that you trust to have your back to keep you safe. Someone that you can trust in ways really big and small, when the stakes get really high and things like national security are on the line. And so, we were trying to find someone who would be able to parry, someone who could go blow for blow with Colin and keep his character honest. And I could not be more excited that it wound up being Nick . . . I think we chose really, really well.”
For his part, Gehlfuss feels like he’s hit the jackpot. “I consider myself very lucky to have been paired up in this relationship, because Tom is a great leader,” he says. Meanwhile, having spent all those seasons on a different Dick Wolf show, he’s bullish on the potential for CIA to have a long and successful run. “I don’t gamble, but if you’re going to gamble, you gamble with Wolf Entertainment,” he says. “You go and you run towards the Wolf pack because the show that I was on is still running. I recently went to a 25-year Law & Order anniversary party. And yes, SVU is in its 27th season. There’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to go the distance here, and it is a gift for any actor to be able to constantly verify and work your craft over a period of time, along with just deepening and evolving with the character. So I’m ready, especially with this group.”
Also in the mix are Mayor of Kingstown alum Necar Zadegan as CIA deputy chief of station Nikki Reynard, and Tell Me Lies’ Natalee Linez as young analyst Gina Gosian.
“Gina Gosian is a CIA intelligence analyst, and I mostly work in the SCIF under Nikki right now,” says Linez. “My job is to gather as much information as I possibly can to help the team with whatever threats there might be. So they’re out on the field and I’m like, ’Here’s everything that I’ve gathered and everything you need to know to go figure out the threats!’ And I really look up to Nikki, because she’s been at this for years. She’s been in the field for years. And so I’m hoping my trajectory kind of goes in the way that she’s done it, because she’s such a badass.”
Indeed, “badass” is the right word for Nikki, but as a former field agent who’s just been promoted, she struggles to adjust to life behind a desk. “It’s a character who used to be out in the field like Colin,” Zadegan explains. “So there’s a history there between the two characters. We don’t know really what it is yet, but Mike will no doubt give us information about that as we go forward through the season. But I think there’s a lot of opportunity that’s ripe for story there. And you know, Nikki kind of comes in with a conflict about where she used to be out in the field and the decision she’s made to come and take this position. There’ll be a lot of drama that will ensue from that conflict for her personally — and in the way that Bill comes into the fold as well, and she works with the FBI team to bring these two together, masterminding this duo that will come to be. I think we’re going to get to see a lot of great scenes this season and I’m looking forward to it.”
CIA airs Mondays on Global & CBS