Actress Vanessa Ferlito will join the cast of "NCIS: New Orleans" season 3 as a regular. Her character will be an FBI Special Agent whose name has not yet been revealed.

The character will take the place of Special Agent Meredith "Merri" Brody as actress Zoe McLellan leaves the show. According to TVLine, the decision to take away McLellan from the show was born from a creative decision.

In season 2, Agent Brody had a relationship with Homeland Security agent John Russo (Ivan Sergei) who was later on revealed to be involved in drug smuggling. Their relationship has put her and the team's life in danger. Dwayne Pride (Scott Bakula) almost lost his life during the encounter, but he knows his colleague and the decision to take her off the team was not his.

The character Ferlito will play will take over Agent Brody's job but, because of the previous events, she is speculated to be indifferent to the group. Reports further reveal that Ferlito's character will be a tough by-the-book agent who will immediately discover how different things are done in New Orleans. Furthermore, she has a mysterious past that will further ignite her conflict with the team and the rest of the town.

Executive producer Brad Kern expressed excitement over the actress' involvement in the show saying, "We're beyond excited to have Vanessa join our show and are looking forward to adding her distinctive personality and edge to our amazing 'NCIS: New Orleans' cast."

It will be interesting to see how the new character blends in or not with the group. It is not known yet how many seasons she will stay, but the show has been renewed for at least two more seasons.

"NCIS: New Orleans" season 3 will premiere on Sept. 20 at 10 p.m. on CBS.