It’s been almost 15 years since CBS’ naval military legal drama JAG went off the air, but now the network is launching a new series that looks at the legal eagles that comprise the prosecutors, defense lawyers and investigators for the U.S. Marine Corps.

Aussie actor Luke Mitchell, who just wrapped up several seasons on Blindspot, takes on the role of Captain John “Abe” Abraham, a driven prosecutor for whom becoming a Marine is a longstanding family tradition and a responsibility he treats with devotion and passion.

“Abe’s a three-dimensional character,” Mitchell tells Parade.com in this exclusive interview. “On the outside looking in, he’s this perfect, all-American guy, but he’s got a lot of stuff going on. He’s a third generation Marine. He was injured in combat. He had to completely change his life and find a new passion and that was becoming a prosecutor. There’s a lot that is going on with him that he doesn’t outwardly show and I find that side of him to be really interesting.”

This is quite a switch from your role as Roman on Blindspot. With Roman, you never knew for sure what side he was on. But Abe is this straight as an arrow guy. What about him intrigued you?
Abe is intrinsically different to Roman, and that is fascinating to me as an actor. To be able to go from one extreme to the other, I feel incredibly lucky and grateful. I’ve never played a character like Abe before. Also, we’re dealing with the world of military law, which is just a really fascinating playground to play in. It’s something that I didn’t really know much about leading into this, but the more I learned, the more interested I was.

Will there be flashbacks to those time periods Abe spent in the Marines before coming to JAG? Maybe some action sequences?
I think the idea is to show the main characters traveling overseas to investigate cases and being on the cusp of being in danger. I don’t know how much I can tell you about whether or not we will have flashbacks to Abe’s time in combat and certainly around the time that he was injured. But from an acting standpoint, I certainly hope we do, because it’s a very fascinating story. Continue reading