Laurence Fishburne has officially come on board “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” succeeding William Petersen on the CBS crime drama.
Fishburne, who will first appear in the ninth episode of the show’s upcoming ninth season, will play a former pathologist who is now working as an itinerant college lecturer, teaching a course in criminalistics. His focus is on understanding criminal behavior, how and why people commit acts of violence — which happen to be tendencies he disturbingly sees within himself.
In the course of a murder investigation, he comes into contact with the CSI team and ultimately joins the Las Vegas Crime Lab as a Level-1 CSI.
“This has been months in the making,” said “CSI” executive producer Carol Mendelsohn. “We have been talking about the character we wanted to create and pursuing our dream casting, which is Laurence Fishburne.”
