Jesse Lee Soffer Previews FBI: International Debut, Show ‘Reinvention’

FBI: International has a new team leader in Jesse Lee Soffer’s Supervisory Special Agent Wesley “Wes” Mitchell — and he’s coming in guns blazing.

“It’s a completely different role,” Soffer, 40, exclusively told Us Weekly of Wes, who is replacing Luke Kleintank’s Scott Forrester as the Fly Team supervisor for season 4. “There’s more of, like, a reinvention of the show going on.”

The actor teased a “new energy” with “new dynamics” and “new relationships” for the upcoming season, which premieres on Tuesday, October 15. (Kleintank, 34, announced his exit in April after three seasons.)

“I’m treating it as something totally new,” Soffer told Us, noting that when the show returns, the rest of the team won’t be as thrilled to see Wes at the helm.

He explained, “Right off the bat it’ll be a little bit of, like, a feeling out process,” with the team asking, “Who is this guy? What’s he all about? What’s his process like?”

Soffer revealed there’s going to be “a little bit of friction,” insisting that’s a “good thing.” He joked that Wes’ leadership style is “go harder or go home,” which might not jive with everyone.

Wes is a former Los Angeles police officer, which Soffer said gives him a “different sensibility” than what Special Agents Cameron Vo (Vinessa Vidotto), Andre Raines (Carter Redwood) and Amanda Tate (Christina Wolfe) and Europol Agent Megan “Smitty” Garrestson (Eva-Jane Willis) are used to.

While Wes will be met with some resistance, not all his subordinates are new faces for him. Soffer told Us that Wes was actually Vo’s training officer before she moved to Budapest to join the FBI team.

“They have history that goes way back,” he teased, noting Wes was “a little rough” on Vo when she was new to the job, but it was only because he likes to “push people and challenge” them.

Soffer added, “There’s gonna be some butting of heads,” but he insisted that the tension between Wes and his crew is “fun and makes for good scenes.”

When it comes to the season 4 premiere, Soffer told Us that it’ll be “super jam-packed and super intense” and that the case will “instantly” suck viewers into the “crazy story.”

The team will “chase down a really gnarly crew doing robberies in the states and in California that end up in Europe,” Soffer explained, promising a “really fun ride” for fans.

While viewers won’t know everything about Wes at first, Soffer promised they’ll “get a full sense of who this guy is in many different capacities in the first episode,” even teasing that a romance could be shown “right away.”

FBI: International season 4 premieres on CBS Tuesday, October 15, at 9 p.m. ET.