Laurence Fishburne Joins CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

The case is solved. The question mark is now answered. 47-year-old Laurence Fishburne will be joining CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, filling a spot William Petersen’s left behind.

The actor who played Morpheus in “The Matrix” trilogy, will be introduced in the ninth episode of the upcoming 10th season, play a forensics scientist with a secret. According to producers, Fishburne and Petersen will overlap for two episodes, probably airing in mid-December of early 2009, before Petersen’s exit. Production on those episodes is set to begin next month.

Although Fishburne was actually had never seen the series before his first meeting with the show’s executive producers, Carol Mendelsohn and Naren Shankar, but he is now. As he said, “I felt a little stupid and embarrassed that I hadn’t watched the show prior to having a meeting with them. But I’m happy to say that the episodes that they sent me to look at were really, really engaging and really wonderful, and kind of dark and moody, like a lot of the work that I’ve actually been involved in”. He emphasized, “So I’m very excited”.

Fishburne was their top choice, as the executive producers said in a joint statement, “Without hesitation, we said Laurence Fishburne. He is a powerful and intense actor, with an incredible range”. Fishburne will join the cast as a medical doctor and expert in criminal behavior who, after being forced out of his career as a research pathologist, became a college professor and ends up involved in a CSI investigation, Shankar said.

And according to CBS press materials, Fishburne’s character, who does not yet have a name -but has been dubbed “The Professor”-, specializes in probing the underlying causes of violent, aggressive behavior, “tendencies he disturbingly sees within himself”.

Fishburne’s character meets members of the “CSI” team during a murder investigation and ends up joining them. But Shankar said producers have backed off an earlier idea that the character’s own genetic profile might match that of many serial killers.

“CSI,” which averaged 17 million viewers last season, ranks as CBS’s top-rated show and the third most-watched scripted series in all of U.S. prime time. The air date for Petersen’s final episode has yet to be determined but will be early next year. Petersen has been with the series since it debuted in fall 2000 and will continue as an executive producer for the series.

The series will begin its new season on October 9, and ready to deal with Petersen’s loss. In July, Shankar giving out statement about the series’ continuity, “What makes shows go off the rails is they forget who they are. We’re a crime-mystery-forensics drama and that won’t change”

Welcome to the club Fishburne!

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