‘NCIS: Hawaii’s Noah Mills on When Filming Will Resume and Welcoming LL Cool J (Exclusive)

Noah Mills is ready to go back to work!

Following the official end of the SAG-AFTRA strike, the NCIS: Hawaii star is ready to make his return to the Big Island and spring into action — literally.

“It’s all pretty quick now, I think,” Mills tells ET’s Kevin Frazier via Zoom in Los Angeles. “Tentative like Dec. 4. We start shooting, and you know we have such a great crew and such a good machine over there going from the first two seasons that we can be up pretty quick.”

He adds, “Everybody’s really excited. And just super grateful to be able to go back to this fantastic job. NCIS Hawaii, that’s my fam. Right now, I miss my castmates, miss making the TV, the episodes. I know we have amazing stuff written for the season. Time to not leave the fans hanging. Get some episodes out.”

The 40-year-old action star says that he found out the exciting news while walking his dog, and knew as soon as SAG made the official announcement, it was real.

“I got the call from my manager, and he was like, ‘Hey, it’s over.’ I was like, ‘Oh, really? I gotta wait to see it to believe it.’  Then SAG announced it,” he shares. “I gotta give a lot of respect to the crews and stuff. That’s hard. I haven’t been a member of the union that long, this has been my first union strike. It was really interesting to see the solidarity, what that means and also sharing in that, because we all have our different guilds. I know a lot of those guys were going through it kind of before us. So I was very aware of that. And just, you know, wanna give them a big shout-out and make it up to you guys, you know, get back.”

Getting back to work means making sure he’s in shape. Mills says that he’s been staying in the gym during his time away from work and is ready for whatever stunts he has to do.

“I’m so excited,” he tells ET. “I’m so excited for that because it’s a big part of our show. I think they want to amp that up a little bit. I think the action and the island and the water work, and everything that people like. I think there’s plans to do a lot of that. So I’ve stayed ready.”

He adds, “We have a fantastic stunt team out there, too. So I trust those guys with my life, literally, when you’re hanging from a carabiner and doing stuff. I’m excited to see what they have drawn up for us.”

Joining Mills and the rest of the NCIS: Hawaii fam in the new season is LL Cool J — who starred as Sam Hanna on NCIS: Los Angeles for 14 seasons. 

“Are you kidding me? I’m so excited,” Mills says about the superstar’s addition to the cast. “I’m like, really, I’m gonna be, you know, sitting out with LL Cool, J. I got to work with him on the NCIS crossover The Mothership. He’s so cool and just has such a strong presence and is an experienced actor. I mean, he was telling me stories, that guy was going to Studio 54, when he was 16 in New York. He’s done it all. So I’m so excited. And you know, he’s just like one of those people who’s really interested in me and what we’re like over in Hawaii. We got a heavyweight coming. So it’s gonna be great.”

NCIS: Hawaii airs on CBS. 

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