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As ET confirmed on Monday, Laurence Fishburne is joining the cast of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." What he isn't doing -- at least not initially -- is replacing William Petersen's character, Gil Grissom, as head of the CSI unit. Rather, Fishburne, whose character has yet to be named and is simply called "The Professor" right now, will be joining the team as a CSI Level 1, which is an entry level for the job.

"You have a team made up of a supervisor, Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger); a CSI Level 3 ready to be a supervisor Nick Stokes (George Eads); plus you have Greg Sanders (Eric Szmanda) and Lauren Lee Smith, who is joining the cast in episode three of this season," explains executive producer Carol Mendelsohn.

The Professor, so nicknamed because when he meets the team he is teaching college, has a background as a research pathologist, but for some reason, he was forced out of that career -- some good mystery here we're sure – and he became a college lecturer. In episode nine of the new season, he gets involved with the CSIs on a case -- and will work extensively with Grissom in that episode and the following one, so there will be an overlap between the two characters.

As for reports that this new character shares DNA in common with serial killers, the producers want to clear that up, saying that is an exaggeration. What he does have is a genetic profile that contains certain clusters of biological facts that are associated with aggressiveness or criminal behavior.

"That is not as simple as saying he has the genetic profile of a serial killer," says executive producer Naren Shankar. "It is just one of the things that is going to lead this character to be interested in the behavior of violent criminals and the world of criminalistics and forensics."

As for Fishburne, he admits that he wasn't a "CSI" fan before getting the call to meet with Carol and Naren.

"To be perfectly frank, when we met in New York I said that I felt a little stupid because I was embarrassed that I hadn't watched [the show] prior to meeting with them, but I am happy to say that the episodes that they sent me to look at were engaging, interesting and kind of dark and moody, like a lot of the work I have been involved with," Fishburne explains. "I thought, 'That is cool.' I thought, 'This will work.'"

Carol and Naren have another month to work out all the details of The Professor's character, since Fishburne doesn't start working until mid-September. His first airdate could be mid-December, but CBS says that it is also possible his episodes won't be broadcast until January 2009.

Keep checking back for more on this story. ET will bring you updates on "CSI" as they break.