Chicago PD Fans Have A Problem With Jesse Lee Soffer's FBI: International Role
Contains spoilers for "FBI: International" Season 4, Episode 1 — "A Leader, Not a Tourist"
Fly Team has a brand-new leader, and fans of the series have mixed feelings about his presence. Wesley "Wes" Mitchell (Jesse Lee Soffer) made an immediate impression with his intense loyalty to his friends, his determination to get the job done at any cost, and his messy love life. While he seems to only be a part of the team for one reason — to get justice for his late partner — he's eventually offered the chance to lead the whole squad, replacing the on-the-run Scott Forrester (Luke Kleintank).
Who does Wes remind a lot of people of? Not Soffer's "Chicago P.D." character Jay Halstead, but rather his commanding officer, Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) — and they're not really being complimentary about it. "He seems more like a Voight type character than anything but more charming," observed u/-Starwind on the FBI TV subreddit. Fans in the comments of TVLine's article about Wes' debut noticed – and weren't pleased about it. "Jesse Lee Soffer comes on to FBI: International like a bull in a china shop playing the same type of agitated play-by-my-own-rules character as Hank Voight of Chicago PD," said one viewer.
While those fans might note that the character feels like Voight, Soffer definitely doesn't feel that way.
Even Jesse Lee Soffer doesn't think Wes is a little like Hank Voight
In an interview with TVLine, Jesse Lee Soffer manages to draw a line between Halstead's Voight-like behavior and what Wes feels. "He had really been put through the wringer, was very brooding, and needed to go find himself. You can lose yourself when you're close to Voight on Chicago P.D.," he noted. But Wes is more relaxed and a free spirit, and thus brings a whole different feeling to the part.
Soffer's goal, of course, is to win old fans of the show over, and he's definitely trying to set Wes apart from Jay. "Wes is an ex-LAPD officer. He did that for a while before becoming an FBI agent, so he likes to kind of do things his own way, he's not always by the book. He doesn't always follow procedure," the actor explained. By the book or not, however, Soffer will always remind fans just a little of his "Chicago P.D." past, even if his casting makes no real sense thanks to the show's interconnected history with "FBI: International." Time will tell if fans take to Wes the way they took to Jay.