CBS cleaned house earlier this year by cancelling NCIS: Hawai’i, which wasn’t the first time that the flagship procedural ended a spin off (New Orleans and Los Angeles have also ended), but the network did so in a not-so ideal way for franchise diehards. This naturally sparked some anger and the question of whether fans would skip NCIS: Origins as a protest, but surprise, surprise, they did show up to the tune of 9 million viewers for the prequel’s two-hour debut in October. That news led to a green light of an 18-episode season.
Meanwhile, the flagship series is pushing through a 22nd season after spinning off decades ago from JAG, and now, the in-the-works NCIS: Tony & Ziva is waiting in the wings. Procedurals seem to know no bounds, and no NCIS junkie will be upset to see this couple together again. Let’s review what Michael Weatherly has gushed and what is even more official on what to expect.
Plot
Not everything has been straightforward for Weatherly’s Anthony DiNozzo and Cote de Pablo’s Ziva David, not even after they fell in love. She faked her death to save the lives of Tony and their child, Tali. This broke Tony’s heart, but fortunately, the former Mossad agent did resurface in the seventeenth NCIS season for a hefty arc, after which she apparently reunited with Tony in Paris. This spin off, however, chose to film a full season in Budapest this year due to a little custom called the Olympics (and maybe Daryl Dixon, too) taking up Parisian bandwidth and space.
Both Weatherly and de Pablo have been enthused about this spin off, which isn’t exactly a surprise, but they have been pulling out the stops on social media with Cote de Pablo divulging on Instagram, “I expect intrigue, romance, a background of Europe, impossible situations that will make our life very complicated but somehow a little something about love.” Previously, she and Weatherly issued a Paramount statement about how “[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.”
When the series begins, Tony has been running his own security company in France, but his relative peace is attacked, and Paramount revealed in a synopsis that he and Ziva have been together, but their coupledom has been threatened: “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.”
Well, Ziva needs to stop with the death faking, and de Pablo did hint to Variety that DiNozzo hasn’t been able to completely trust her again. Yet:
“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.”
Can you blame him? DiNozzo ultimately wants to chill out and tell bad jokes. Let the dude be happy.
Cast
Cote de Pablo and Michael Weatherly are obviously the central ingredients as Ziva and Tony. Emilia Golfieri, who appeared briefly on NCIS, will reprise her role as Tali in this spin off. Paramount+ also announced eight regular actors, including James D’Arcy, Isla Gie, Lara Rossi, Amita Suman, Maximilian Osinski, Nassima Benchicou, Julian Ovenden, and Terence Maynard, in the roles of Tony’s employees, hackers, Interpol officials, and intelligence agents.
Release Date
NCIS: Origins debuted on CBS in October, but Paramount+ is where NCIS: Tony And Ziva will surface, and no date has been provided yet. 2025, baby.
Trailer
In lieu of a trailer, it’s worth taking a look back at Ziva resurfacing in NCIS‘ seventeenth season as all hell broke loose.
