'She's a very powerful, influential person. She'll come with a lot of gravitas as a character,' the actor says of Catherine's return.
CSI: Vegas returned two favorites, William Petersen's Gil Grissom and Jorja Fox's Sara Sidle, for its first season and when the sophomore installment rolls around, it will be bringing Marg Helgenberger's beloved CSI character, Catherine Willows, into the fray. The CBS update, which brings the action back to where it all started, follows a new Crime Lab team, headed by Maxine Roby (Paula Newsome), as they solve cases using forensic science.
"We're really lucky to have her back and personally, I'm overjoyed," CSI: Vegas star Matt Lauria, who plays investigator Josh Folsom, told ET while promoting the series' season 1 DVD/Blu-ray release, out Tuesday. "I would've been deeply enthused, even if I didn't have any experience with Marg personally. But I'm all the more enthused because... my experience of her is she's just a complete class act, very generous, very genuine person."
Lauria guest starred on a handful of episodes of CSI as an FBI agent from 2011-12 and had the opportunity to work closely with Helgenberger. "She was so kind and inclusive and just lovely. And she's very, very talented. She sparkles," he recalled. "So, for me personally, I can't wait. I'm really excited."
Bringing Catherine into the CSI: Vegas world will likely add a new dynamic to the inner workings of the team, he forecasted.
"That role is so iconic and she's been such a massive presence on the show for so long -- 12 seasons. And besides that, she's a really interesting character, in that she's been around Vegas for so long," Lauria said. "Even in the season we just did, talking about her in the casino. Story-wise, she's still involved and she's still in the mix. So I think that will bring a really interesting [layer]. She's a very powerful, very influential person in this environment. She'll come with a lot of gravitas as a character."
"For [the team], obviously we're well aware of who she is. She's responsible for our facilities," he added, noting that Josh and Catherine share some connective threads and common traits that could make for an intriguing partnership. "We have a similar background. We may come from similar stock. It'll be interesting to see in what way that may come to fruition. I can't really reveal too much, but I hope there's something there."
It's still early days in the writers' room as showrunner Jason Tracey and the team arc out season 2, but Lauria shared that he recently met with the writers where he learned bits and pieces of what's to come.
"I got a virtual meeting in the writers' room two weeks ago, something like that; it was a little shy of 15 minutes. They're working hard, they're moving forward and it's a chance to get in there early in their writing process and just say hello, get to know everybody," Lauria revealed.
"Jason spoke about some ideas that I probably can't talk about, other than to say, if fans watching the show are doing their own CSI sleuth work, they'll pick up on a lot of clues about where Josh may have come from. Going into the second season, I think we'll begin to get more information about that and see how the past may collide with Josh's present -- whether it's literally or just figuratively -- to see how the former influences and experiences in his life may affect the balance of where he is now," he teased.
And if the season 1 finale cliffhanger, which seemed to allude to a serial killer-at-large wreaking havoc on Las Vegas, is any indication, the upcoming chapter in the CSI universe is about to be even more dramatic.
"I have my own thoughts on this guy," Lauria said when asked about the final images. "I hope that's where I think this plays. It seems like a serial killer-type person, someone who's got their motives. All that strange white stuff and the scrawls on the wall and all that stuff, I'm really excited to see where they take that."
Season 1 of CSI: Vegas is available on DVD and Blu-ray, and includes all 10 episodes, featurettes and deleted scenes.
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