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The Fly Team is losing another integral member! Not long after Heida Reed exited the show, news broke that Luke Kleintank, who stars as Scott Forrester, will also be leaving FBI: International in Season 3. Why is Luke Kleintank leaving FBI: International? Keep reading to find out.
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FBI: Internationalis the third spin-off of Dick Wolf’sFBI. It follows the elite operatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s International Fly Team. Headquartered in Budapest, the team investigates crime and terrorism abroad, neutralizing threats against American citizens. Luke Kleintank has starred as Scott Forrester, the head of the Fly Team unit, since Season 1. Rounding out the cast is Carter Redwood as Special Agent Andre Raines, Vinessa Vidotto as interrogation expert Cameron Vo and Season 3 newcomer Christina Wolfe as Special Agent Amanda Tate.
Heida Reed, who played Forrester’s second-in-command and on-again, off-again girlfriend Jamie Kellett, exited the show in the Season 3 premiere, with Kellett leaving Budapest to take a job back in the states. Now, the squad will be losing its team leader, which leaves fans wondering: Why is Luke Kleintank is exiting FBI: International and how the show will go on without him? We have everything there is to know about his departure below.
Why is Luke Kleintank leaving FBI: International?
Luke Kleintank is leaving the FBI: International to spend more time with his family, which includes wife Christina Vignaud and daughter Ruby Roland. “After much thought and consideration, I’ve made the difficult decision to leave FBI: International,” he said. “This decision is driven by my unwavering commitment to my family, whose love and well-being are paramount in my life.”
He continued: “I’m profoundly thankful for the extraordinary cast and crew of the show, who have not only been colleagues but also a family away from home. Their unwavering dedication and remarkable talents have made every moment on set an unforgettable journey that has enriched my life in countless ways.” “Lastly, I would also like to extend my thanks to the fans who have supported us through the first three seasons,” he concluded.
Kleintank previously told Parade in 2022 about how many FBI: International cast members had to uproot their lives and families to film the series. “When we started this show, it was a big step for the majority of us. Taking a big jump over here because we were leaving our families and everybody, but it’s been a real blessing so far to be honest,” he said.
Kleintank also told the site about the logistics of filming in multiple countries. “We haven’t done a lot of moving this year because of logistical reasons and production reasons because we started late in the season. But we went to Croatia for the finale,” he said. “We went to Prague for an episode. They’ve done some exterior things in France and some in Austria as well. Our art department’s amazing. They’ve been able to convert Budapest into a lot of these different places. And I know from the producers next year we plan to go to a different country every three to four episodes. For me, it’s amazing. It’s a blessing I get to go see a new country that I’ve never seen in my life.”
In fact, Kleintank’s daughter was conceived while he and his life were living in Budapest for FBI: International. “I feel very blessed. I’m having a baby, myself, with me and my wife. She actually got pregnant here at Budapest, and she came to move out here with me,” he told The List in October 2022. “One of the things we all talked about, there was a big celebration for everything, so… my child’s going to be born in Budapest. It’s amazing. It feels like a huge blessing. I’ve never spent much time in Europe in my life, and to be able to experience different cultures and see all that, it’s different, but it’s also, I feel like I’m living a dream, to be honest.”
Due to his family, Kleintank previously took a break from the series in 2022. FBI: International‘s creator Derek Haas — who also created FBI and FBI: Most Wanted — confirmed the paternity leave to Give Me My Remote in 2022. “Luke had a baby — he’s an awesome guy and an awesome dad,” Haas said. “And we planned this arc around the fact that [with] a newborn, he would want some time to be a dad. And, of course, as a father myself, and as anyone who works at this company will attest, we’re a big family; we’re a family-friendly organization.”
How does Scott Forrester leave FBI: International?
Kleintank’s last episode of FBI: International was Season 3, Episode 11, “Touts,” however Forrester doesn’t officially leave until the Season 3 finale, “Tuxhorn,” on May 31, 2024. In Season 3, Episode 12, “Gift,” the Fly Team learns that Forrester’s mother, a double agent in hiding, sent him a message about how to track her down. The episode ended on a cliffhanger as a killer caught by the Fly Team offered them information on where Forrester and his mother were for his own immunity.
FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Amanda Tate later gets information on her own from an NSA agent to where Forrester’s mother is and asks Brian Lange, the NSA’s liaison to the FBI, if he could help the Fly Team track Forrester down. Lange hesitates, with the episode ending on a “to be continued.” Given that Kleintank has already filmed his final episode of FBI: International, fans wonder whether Forrester will be killed off screen as the Fly Team investigates what happened to his mother.
Forrester was officially written out in the Season 3 finale, “Tuxhorn,” in which it’s revealed that Forrester and his mother, Angela (played by Elizabeth Mitchell) have disappeared and are somewhere in Alaska. The Fly Team discovers where Forrester is in the final moments of the episode, but while they know they should reveal his location to Deputy Director Adell, Lane orders them to wipe the file showing where Forrester and Angela, keeping the Fly Team leader’s former leader’s location a secret.
In an interview with Cinemablend in May 2024, Eva-Jane Willis, who plays Megan “Smitty” Garretson on FBI: International, teased that nobody is safe on the series, including Forrester. “I think that there are shows where everyone is always safe all the time,” she said. “This is not one of those shows. This is a show where there are real stakes. We’re really going in with guns. We’re really being blown up one minute and shot at the next. And we want the stakes to be real and the stakes to be high and for the audience to know that these people really are in danger and they are real people and they might not survive. So I guess what FBI does is keep the stakes high. Keep people guessing and make sure that it’s as much of a roller coaster for you as it is for us.”
Following the news of Kleintank’s exit, news broke that Colin Donnell, who played Connor Rhodes on NBC’s Chicago Med from Seasons 1 to 5 and now plays Lange, would replace Kleintank as the new lead of FBI: International. “Excited for you all to meet [REDACTED] and it’s a pleasure to be working with this fantastic cast & crew here in Budapest In the meantime, here are some amazing things I’ve eaten in my short time in this gorgeous city,” Donnell captioned an Instagram post at the time.
FBI: International airs on CBS on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. EST and streams on Paramount+.
Check out the gallery below to see the FBI cast’s real-life children and families.
