Years Ago, NCIS Creators Considered a Very Famous Actress for a Beloved Character’s Role

Launched back in 2003, CBS long-standing police procedural giant NCIS never really followed most of the popular shows’ suit by casting big Hollywood stars, but rather picked some actors relatively unknown at the time and then brought them all to international fame.

However, the future franchise once almost stepped away from its path when the crew seriously considered offering a major role to an actress who by 2003 already blew everyone away with her part in another big series of the 2000s.

Talking about NCIS creation history a while ago, the show’s team briefly addressed that big rumor about Jennifer Aniston ’s interest in landing one of the big roles. Still filming Friends at that time, Aniston was nonetheless considered for Caitlin Todd’s role, which eventually went to Sasha Alexander.

According to NCIS executive producer Charles Floyd Johnson, “Jennifer Aniston was available at the time, and her name was floated.” Susan Bluestein, NCIS casting director, was quick to intervene, saying that she didn’t recall ever having Jennifer Aniston’s candidacy in mind, though she still admitted that the actress “could very well have been a name that we discussed.”

Having landed Caitlin Todd’s role after all, Sasha Alexander still didn’t have much time on the show, as she eventually quit NCIS after the second season due to the actress’ tight schedule. The series’ creators thus were forced to kill Caitlin off by having her shot dead during a mission she was carrying out in the season 2 finale.

The character’s death came as an utter shock to the show’s fans and to the rest of NCIS characters as well, as the following season finds the whole team mourning their untimely gone colleague.

Now that it’s clear that Jennifer Aniston was yet another challenger for the role, fans can only speculate whether her landing Caitlin’s part could’ve made things go in a different direction if the actress had been available for more than just two seasons back in the day.

Though it seems pretty possible to imagine that Aniston could’ve enlarged the character’s storyline, Sasha Alexander’s eventual win in that race and then departure from the show forced the creators to bring Ziva David in, something that also could’ve delayed or even never happened had Aniston landed the role.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter