The FBI: Most Wanted task force is returning to CBS in the 2024 TV schedule, but the Season 5 team will look a bit different from where Season 4 left off. Shantel VanSanten, previously known for playing Nina Chase on FBI, has migrated over to the spinoff to join the mission of hunting the worst of the worst fugitives. Nina's arrival is the latest of many cast changes to Most Wanted, along with the departure of Alexa Davalos as Kristin Gaines. Roxy Sternberg, who is one of just two series regulars who have been around from the beginning, spoke with CinemaBlend about the new cast member fitting into the team!
The Season 5 premiere of Most Wanted on February 13 will see the task force heading to Virginia after the deaths of several people due to a deal gone bad, while Remy still has to process the reveal about his nephew at the end of Season 4. Plus, a familiar face will have joined the team!
FBI: Most Wanted has had a lot of cast turnover over the years, with the most notable perhaps being Dylan McDermott's Remy Scott replacing Julian McMahon's Jess LaCroix. For Season 5, the show is bringing over an existing character from FBI rather than introducing another newcomer. When I spoke with Roxy Sternberg, who plays Sheryll Barnes, I asked how the situation is different bringing Nina into the mix vs. a new comer, and the actress shared:
That's such a good question. Do you know what? I think maybe it was a smoother infiltration knowing that she had already worked in this world before. She's familiar with the guys over there and familiar with the way the shows work, even though we're slightly different. We're always on the move, so it's slightly faster pace, I would say, constantly changing locations. It's also storytelling from a different way. We are less so with our guys and more so following the bad guy, which is, I believe different to FBI. So it's slightly different, but very similar in a way as well. So I think it was a smoother infiltration.
Shantel VanSanten's arrival on Most Wanted is just one of several upcoming cast changes in the three FBI shows, and it sounds like it could be the smoothest of them all. She also appeared in the show once before joining as a series regular, but not part of the team actively hunting a bad guy. She had a role in the three-show crossover (available streaming via Paramount+ subscription) when Nina was shot. Fortunately, it seems that she'll be part of Most Wanted under much better circumstances this time around.
While fans will have to tune in on Tuesday nights to see the team newcomer in action, Roxy Sternberg only had good things to say about Shantel VanSanten as a co-star:
She's an absolute pleasure to work with. There's been quite a few cast changes over the five seasons that we've had... I wonder if that why it's been such a smooth transition. She is an incredible joy to work with and has become a great friend and I couldn't be happier.
There certainly have been quite a few cast changes over the years of FBI: Most Wanted, with Shantel VanSanten replacing Alexa Davalos, who in turn had been brought in to replace to Kellan Lutz after his departure in early Season 3. Despite the cast turnover, the task force is a well-oiled unit of agents, and Roxy Sternberg previewed how well Nina fits into that unit of Barnes and the rest:
I think she fits in just as well. She has her unique skills. She drives like a mad woman. She drives like a maniac. She knows cars super well. So whenever there's instances where we find ourselves trying to find the bad guy and looking in the car, she's able to look at the tires and work out that this was last driven then and that means he must be this far away. She's super smart. She's got her own unique skills, which is why we all work so well together. We all bring our own unique set of skills which are needed for this team to be so successful. She's brought her own unique skills, which are what we're missing all along. For five seasons, we've waited.
While Nina was clearly a capable agent over on FBI, her biggest role in Season 5 was as the mother of Scola's child, and she was never a series regular on the parent show. That's not going to be the case for Most Wanted, and apparently will bring some skills with a car to the team that wasn't a resource for them before. Roxy Sternberg continued:
It really has been so lovely working with her. She's fun, she's fun on camera. We have a few fun driving scenes, where they've written it [with] a little bit of fun between her and I. But I think also because we just get on so well, we've kind of added a layer of humor to it. It's always fun when you're doing green screen driving, hoping that it looks realistic, and you don't look crazy, just swinging your body from side to side. But I have actually seen, because I had to do some ADR, little bits of it. I think it all is working so well.
Considering that Most Wanted is generally the darkest of the three FBI shows, a little extra dose of fun will be welcome with Barnes! As for when Barnes and Nina will share a scene that required some green screen driving... well, fans will have to tune in to find out. When we spoke, Roxy Sternberg hadn't yet seen the premiere other than the parts that required some additional dialogue recording.
Tune in to CBS on Tuesday, February 13 at 10 p.m. ET for the Season 5 premiere of FBI: Most Wanted, following FBI: International resolving its explosive cliffhanger at 9 p.m. and FBI delivering a terrorist threat at 8 p.m.
