The deal has been signed according to TV Guide, and Laurence Fishburne will officially be joining the cast of “CSI” as the replacement for William Peterson.

Fishburne will debut in the ninth episode of the season. The episode will most likely air in December, and Gill will be departing around the same time. Fishburne will be playing a former pathologist who is now a college professor teaching criminalistics. Ultimately he will cross paths with the CSI team and join the crime lab as a Level-1 CSI.

The character is so fresh that he still doesn’t have a name in the writer’s room. That will all change very soon, but expect some interesting changes to CSI with this new cast change.