Is Linda Hunt leaving NCIS: Los Angeles? Is Hetty gone for good?

Is Linda Hunt leaving NCIS: Los Angeles? If you wanted Sunday night’s new episode and walked away with that sentiment, we more than understand. After all, it was pretty much made official that Kilbride is the new team leader, which means that Hetty doesn’t exactly have that title anymore.

Yet, it’s also been clear that the writers have been charting towards this for a while. Nell was more or less the leader last season and while Hunt is billed as a series regular, she really only appears in a small handful of episodes at this point. We know that Hetty is currently off on one of her trademark mystery operations, one that could easily get her killed but also one that not many other characters know a lot about.

Are we reasonably confident that Linda will return at some point this season? Absolutely. Her limited appearances have been in part for safety reasons since the start of the pandemic. For most of season 12, she appeared remotely until the finale. The show will probably make her return into some sort of event, which they can do since there is so much nostalgia for that character and we know the cast and crew love having her around.

Given that Gerald McRaney is now a series regular in the role of Kilbride, we know that we’re going to be seeing a lot of him — and through that, we’ll learn a whole lot more than everything that we have so far. It’s going to be a hard transition, especially since there are some characters we’ve seen come on and the past and get a lot of negative feedback. (Take Mosley, for example, who was gone more or less within a year.)

Related – Be sure to get some more news when it comes to NCIS: Los Angeles

Are you worried that Linda Hunt is leaving NCIS: Los Angeles for good?

When do you think we’ll see Hetty again? Be sure to share right now in the attached comments! After you do just that, stick around — there are more updates coming and of course, we don’t want you missing them. (Photo: CBS.)