‘Hawaii Five-0’ Season 8 Spoilers: McGarett Recruits New Members
"Hawaii Five-0" will experience some serious shake up in its cast as two of the series regulars decided not to come back for Season 8. Two fresh faces have been added to the cast of the CBS show while one recurring character has been promoted to a series regular.
The team of crime fighters will be joined by characters played by Meaghan Rath and Beulah Koale, TV Line has learned. Rath will play Tani Rey, a former first-rate candidate at the Police Academy, while Koale will take the role of former Navy SEAL Junior Reigns.
After being kicked out from the Police Academy, Tani Rey starts working as a lifeguard at a hotel pool and will be recruited by Steve McGarett (Alex O'Loughlin). Junior Reigns will asked McGarett for a job after returning from serving his country.
In addition to the two newcomers, Ian Anthony Dale will be promoted from the recurring cast to the regular cast. Regularly appearing as the trusted confidant and resource of the team, his character Adam Noshimuri will be recruited by McGarett to work for Five-0.
The exit of former regular cast members Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park ahead of "Hawaii Five-0" Season 8 caused a major uproar from the fans. Both actors are Asian American so fans accused the series of lack of diversity but CBS assured fans that they did everything to keep the two.
"Both actors chose not to extend their contracts," CBS said in a statement obtained by Variety. "CBS was extremely generous and proactive in their renegotiation talks."
Kim and Park were getting unprecedented raises but they chose to move on in the end, according to CBS. The network added that no one wanted to see the two actors go as they were irreplaceable.
"Hawaii Five-0" Season 8 will premiere on Sept. 29. The CBS show is produced by Peter Lenkov, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Eric Guggenheim.
