NCIS: Los Angeles aired a new episode on Sunday night, but Callen wasn’t a part of the installment.
The lack of star Chris O’Donnell being on-screen led to a lot of questions from NCIS: Los Angeles fans as the night went on.
Where is Callen on NCIS: Los Angeles? Is Chris O’Donnell leaving NCIS: LA? Is G. Callen still on NCIS: Los Angeles?
Well, let’s dive into those questions as the answers all circle around the same central point within the writing of the show.
NCIS: Los Angeles fans ask, ‘where is Callen?’
On the NCIS: LA winter premiere, Callen told Sam that he had found someone else (a woman) who had a file on them in Hetty’s office. That was where Callen had found a file on himself, as well as a lot of other kids that had worked with Hetty, in the opening moments of Season 13.
At the very end of that episode, Callen came across the woman outside of a restaurant, and then convinced her to have dinner with him, without revealing that he is an NCIS agent. It was clear that Callen wanted to find out why she had a file with Hetty and what she was up to in her life now.
Then, at the very beginning of the January 9 episode of NCIS: LA, there was a very brief conversation between Admiral Kilbride and Sam Hanna that revealed a bit more information about what was going on.
“Agent Hanna, where is your partner?” Kilbride asked Sam.
“He had to take care of some personal business,” Sam responded.
“I know that, I’m the one that gave him personal time,” Kilbride added.
“He may have mentioned reconnecting with his sister, but that’s really none of our business is it,” Sam incredulously noted.
The conversation then switched to a mission at hand, where Kensi had gone off the grid, and some bodies were found in Mexico. Kilbride knew all about the drama of this NCIS team getting trapped in Mexico during a previous mission and he wanted them focused. That left no time to focus on what Callen was up to.
Answering the questions about G. Callen and Chris O’Donnell
There have been no rumors about Chris O’Donnell leaving the NCIS: LA cast, and he is slated to be an important part of the January 23 episode of the show. We will likely find out more about Callen’s side mission as well, which is starting to become a familiar side of the writing for the show.
Much like Hetty went on mysterious missions and would then pop up a few episodes later, Callen has started to do a lot of off-books missions himself, all with the goal of figuring out more about his past or reconnecting with Anna Kolcheck.
Some bad news has come from the show itself, as NCIS: LA had to shut down production on Season 13 episodes due to a positive COVID case within the cast. The current plan is to reassess in February, so, hopefully, the team can get back to work on creating good episodes for the back end of the season.
Fans who missed seeing Chris O’Donnell playing Callen during the January 9 episode (Season 13, Episode 8 called Land of Wolves) should rest assured that he will be featured in many more episodes this winter and spring.
NCIS: Los Angeles airs Sundays at 9/8c on CBS.
How do you know anything about Callen’s role in the upcoming episodes? Are you in touch with Gemmill? Neither of the releases mention Callen specifically. And what does “he will be featured in MANY more episodes this winter and spring” even mean? He’s a MAJOR star of the show. That’s like saying Shemar Moore as Hondo will be in many more episodes of S.W.A.T. this season. lol