JAG spin off NCIS (that’s right) is currently going strong through its 22nd season. Many special agents and forensic scientists have come and gone, and the flagship series has spawned several location-based spin offs (including New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Sydney). Most recently, CBS cancelled NCIS: Hawai’i after a cliffhanger, but that does not signal danger for the overall ship since two more spin offs are coming.
CBS and Paramount+ will soon debut NCIS: Origins to travel back in time when Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) had recently left his U.S. Marines sniper career to investigate naval crimes. In the present, the other spin off will follow Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) and Ziva David (Cote de Pablo) after their characters left NCIS under separate yet connected circumstances years ago. There’s a lot of history there, both romantic and professional, so let’s piece together some clues on what we can expect from NCIS: Tony And Ziva.
Cast
Cote de Pablo and Michael Weatherly will bring their chemistry back across the pond as Ziva and Tony, and their daughter, Tali, will be portrayed by Emelia Golfieri. They will be joined by a cast of at least eight regulars to portray various Interpol officials, intelligence agents, employees from Tony’s company, and a master hacker. Those actors include James D’Arcy, Isla Gie, Maximilian Osinski, Nassima Benchicou, Julian Ovenden, Amita Suman, Terence Maynard, and Lara Rossi.
Plot
The two new spin offs were both announced back in February with NCIS: Origins coming together incredibly fast for an October premiere. NCIS: Tony and Ziva, however, sounds like a more complicated production, beginning with the filming location: Budapest. This spin off’s story, however, is based in Paris, so why is production taking place in Hungary and not France? For starters, the recent Olympics were taking up a bit of space, and perhaps the TV gods also didn’t want Ziva and Tony stealing thunder from Emily In Paris and The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon.
(I’m half joking about that last sentence but can you imagine Ziva pulling out the knives and martial arts on walkers? She’d somehow be as powerful as Daryl with a rocket launcher in his arms and a crossbow on his back.)
NCIS devotees know that this show reunites Ziva and Tony after he had believed she was dead (he was shown crying in the aftermath) in Season 13. Tony soon left the scene to raise Tali himself, but as it turns out, Ziva faked her death, as it was revealed years later. Fast forward to now, and Weatherly and de Pablo have been almost too happy to be back together when filming began in early July. To that end, they promised (via a Paramount statement) that “[t]he world of Tony and Ziva (and daughter Tali) promises to be an action-packed roller coaster fueled by love, danger, tears and laughter.”
What has Tony been doing for all this time? Beyond staying abreast of endless movie trivia, he’s been running a security company in France, and that relative peace gets shattered, according to the Paramount description:
When Tony’s security company is attacked, they must go on the run across Europe, try to figure out who is after them and maybe even learn to trust each other again so that they can finally have their unconventional happily ever after.
They will, however, have at least some difficulty reaching “happily ever after” because, as de Pablo told Variety, they will have mega-trust issues, which is only to be expected when a partner fakes their death. Geez:
“I think the idea of trust, and the idea of how this relationship moves forward is something that was intriguing to us as actors. We’re trying to address the idea of trust and we’re trying to address how they move forward parenting together with this child and trying to make things work and having a lot of challenges thrown at them.”
No more death faking, Ziva. DiNozzo’s heart can only take so much. :(
Release Date
CBS has revealed that NCIS will premiere on Oct. 14 with a two-hour premiere. That spin off will also stream on Paramount+, which is actually where NCIS: Tony And Ziva will primarily live, rather than CBS. At this time, this international spin off doesn’t have a publicized release date, but plan on 2025.
Trailer
Michael Weatherly hasn’t excitedly taken to Instagram (yet) to post a trailer himself, but he has probably already cut one in his mind. Paramount+ is keeping new footage top secret, so we will have to make do with a compilation of Ziva putting her Mossad training to good use:
