Hawaii Five-0 has some new faces for season eight. Grace Park and Daniel Dae Kim's Hawaii Five-0 departures made waves in the TV world and now CBS has made the new cast replacements official.
Ian Anthony Dale, Meaghan Rath and Beulah Koale will join the cast of Hawaii Five-0 for season eight.
Dale has recurred on the CBS series since season two in the role Adam Noshimuri. A trusted confidant and resource, he'll now be on the Five-0 team after McGarrett (Alex O'Loughlin) recruits him. Dale is currently in CBS's Salvation.
Rath will play Tani Rey, a new recruit McGarrett adds after finding her working as a lifeguard at a hotel pool. Her character was kicked out of the police academy, even though she was a first-rate candidate. Her other credits include Being Human, New Girl and Cooper Barrett's Guide to Surviving Life.
Koale joins the cast as Junior Reigns, a former Navy SEAL who just returned from serving his country. He asks McGarrett, a fellow SEAL, for a job.
Returning for season eight are stars O'Loughlin, Scott Caan, Chi McBride, Jorge Garcia, Taylor Wily, Kimee Balmilero and Dennis Chun. Park and Kim left the series during its hiatus over a reported contract dispute. Kim went public about the exit on his Facebook page.
"I will not be returning to Hawaii Five-0 when production starts next week. Though I made myself available to come back, CBS and I weren't able to agree to terms on a new contract, so I made the difficult choice not to continue," he said. Later in his note, he added, "I'll end by saying that though transitions can be difficult, I encourage us all to look beyond the disappointment of this moment to the bigger picture. The path to equality is rarely easy."
Hawaii Five-0 executive producer Peter Lenkov and CBS have also responded.
"Daniel and Grace have been important and valued members of Hawaii Five-0 for seven seasons," the network said in a statement. "We did not want to lose them and tried very hard to keep them with offers for large and significant salary increases. While we could not reach an agreement, we part ways with tremendous respect for their talents on screen, as well as their roles as ambassadors for the show off screen, and with hopes to work with them again in the near future."
The whereabouts of the Kim's and Park's characters will be revealed in the season premiere.
Hawaii Five-0 returns to CBS on Friday, Sept. 29 at 9 p.m.