It’s Official: Laurence Fishburne Joins CSI

Two weeks ago it was a rumor. This week it’s a fact. Laurence Fishburne is replacing William Petersen’s character, Gil Grissom, on CBS’ crime drama CSI in its 9th season:

Oscar nominee and Emmy and Tony Award winner Laurence Fishburne (”What’s Love Got To Do With It,” “The Matrix,” “Miss Evers’ Boys”) will join the cast of the CBS Paramount Network Television and Jerry Bruckheimer Television series, CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION, on the CBS Television Network. His character will debut in this season’s ninth episode.

Fishburne will play a former pathologist who is now working as an itinerant college lecturer, teaching a course in criminalistics. His focus is on understanding criminal behavior, how and why people commit acts of violence – tendencies he disturbingly sees within himself. In the course of a murder investigation, he comes into contact with the CSI team and ultimately joins the Las Vegas Crime Lab as a Level-1 CSI.

This is awesome news. Fishburne is an incredible actor and will no doubt help to revitalize a series that is in danger of growing stagnant after nearly a decade in running.

What about you? Excited for this new casting or wish they had gone in another direction?

Source: CBS