Christopher LaSalle (Lucas Black) goes out with a bang on “NCIS: New Orleans” — quite literally. The special agent succumbs to injuries stemming from a gunshot wound, giving the series a truly shocking TV death. But why did the creators decide to kill off the character?
Lucas left “NCIS: New Orleans” in Season 6 because he was tired of working long hours, but he still enjoyed the experience. Speaking about his family, Black told Fox News in 2022, “The show was good to us. We had a good time. It was a good run, and we sacrificed a lot of family time. But at some point, enough was enough. It was time for us to… take back a lot of that time and spend that quality time with each other that was sacrificed for six years.”
It would have been easy for the show’s creators to write LaSalle out of the procedural series by having him move to another department, leaving the door open to a possible return. However, showrunners Christopher Silber and Jan Nash felt that the special agent deserved an emphatic goodbye. The rest is history.
Many actors find working on NCIS to be demanding
The “NCIS” franchise can be pretty all-encompassing for the cast and crew members involved. Lucas Black isn’t the only actor to leave one of its shows to pursue other life and career goals, with others citing the long working hours as the main reasons behind their decision to call it quits.
Much like Christopher LaSalle, Caitlin Todd was killed off on “NCIS” because actor Sasha Alexander needed a lighter schedule at the time. However, series co-creator Donald P. Bellisario viewed it as the perfect opportunity to create an impactful death that would shock viewers. Caitlin was a major character at the time, so her demise took people by surprise.
Mark Harmon also parted ways with “NCIS” after 19 seasons back in 2021 because the workload was too much. Fortunately, his character, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, left with his life intact — and Harmon even returned to the franchise to narrate the “NCIS: Origins” spin-off prequel series.