After leaving Law and Order: Special Victims Unit at the end of the last TV season, Danny Pino has a new home, at least temporarily. Pino has been tapped as a recurring character on Scandal and will have a major arc later this season, according to Variety.
As with all Shonda Rhimes shows, news on who Pino will be playing has been kept under wraps. For fun, Variety said that he would be playing a new love interest for Olivia Pope, since Olivia and Fitz broke up in the the midseason finale, though they noted Pino could be playing anyone – not necessarily a new love interest (mostly because Olivia needs some time to be alone).
Pino isn’t the only casting change to happen on the show. Joe Morton, who plays Olivia’s father, was recently promoted to a series regular.
Pino left Law and Order: Special Victims Unit at the end of the 16th season after he was shot in the knee and the liver when he tried to stop a suspect from shooting people in the courtroom.
When the squad assembled to celebrate Olivia Benson officially adopting her foster son, Noah, Pino’s character, Nick Amaro, told Benson he was retiring from the New York Police Department and was moving out to Los Angeles to spend time with his family that had moved there.
Pino joined the cast in the beginning of the 13th season to replace Christopher Meloni, who left when he couldn’t agree on a new contract with the show.
According to Deadline, this summer, Pino will star on CBS’ new show BrainDead, which was created by Robert and Michelle King, who’s current CBS show, The Good Wife, is in the middle of its final season.
BrainDead is about a Capitol Hill staffer, Laurel, who realizes the government isn’t working and that aliens have come to Earth and have started to eat the brains of members of Congress and their staffers. Pino is set to play Luke, Laurel’s older brother. The show will premiere this summer on CBS and will run for 13 episodes.
BrainDead marks Pino’s return to CBS since Cold Case, which was canceled in 2010. He played Scotty Valens on the show’s original seven-season run. He also appeared in an episode of CSI:NY as Valens and the team was solving a case in New York City.