When ScreenRant’s Rachel Foertsch attended the 2025 San Diego Comic Con panel for NCIS: Tony & Ziva, Cote de Pablo revealed something very important to the audience about the NCIS spinoff series.
De Pablo appeared alongside her costar, Michael Weatherly, and executive producer John McNamara. NCIS star Brian Dietzen moderated the panel, allowing him to reunite with his former costars.
De Pablo’s Ziva joined NCIS in season 3 of the flagship series while Michael Weatherly’s Tony was part of the series since the backdoor pilot that aired as part of JAG. The two had a fantastic chemistry that made fans invest in the growth of the relationship between Tony and Ziva.
Unfortunately, Tony and Ziva were both written out of NCIS before their romance could really take off. Now, fans get to reconnect with those characters and their chemistry all over again.
Cote De Pablo & Michael Weatherly Both Wanted To Do NCIS: Tony & Ziva
Both Actors Were Excited To Return To The NCIS Franchise
During the NCIS: Tony & Ziva panel at SDCC, de Pablo spoke about the decision to do the show. She called playing Ziva “the greatest adventure of [her] life” while talking about her decision, noting that the spinoff series marked a return to that adventure.
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De Pablo and Weatherly were both excited to return to the series to explore some of the potential answers to questions they still had about their characters. De Pablo explained:
I’m going back to the greatest adventure of my life. There were moments when I would look at Michael in a scene, and we were on the same wavelength. It’s something, like I said, we manifested. We had these questions [about Tony & Ziva] that we wanted to answer.
That excitement about exploring the characters is a good sign for the show and for those fans in the audience. It means that both de Pablo and Weatherly are finding the work they’re doing compelling again.
Tony & Ziva’s Story Ended In NCIS Because Both Weatherly & De Pablo Left
Both Actors Wanted To Pursue New Projects
Tony and Ziva’s story came to an end in NCIS because the actors playing the characters moved on to new projects. While de Pablo left NCIS in season 11, Weatherly left the show in season 13. De Pablo returned in guest appearances in later seasons, but the rest of their story effectively happened off-screen.
NCIS: Tony & Ziva will premiere on Paramount+ on September 4, 2025
When Weatherly left NCIS in season 13, he did so because he wanted a break from the long hours of a network TV drama. NCIS showrunner Steven D. Binder even said Weatherly planned not to do network TV again, but he booked the lead role in Bull not long after:
When [Michael] left NCIS, he said to me, ‘I am never going to do network television again.’ He had just had some kids, and the hours are so long… but then this Bull thing landed in his lap, and again he was working like a fiend. So I suspect — forgetting Tony DiNozzo for a minute — that Michael Weatherly is on vacation.
Binder’s comments were made after Bull ended, and fans were curious if Weatherly would return to NCIS, even for a guest spot. Weatherly did not seem keen to return to the show, but he did make an appearance for the show’s sendoff for David McCallum.
Both de Pablo and Weatherly being willing to return for a spinoff series means that they both found something more to explore…
De Pablo made more returns to NCIS, but it also appeared she had put Ziva to bed after NCIS season 17 and her final guest appearance in the series. Neither de Pablo nor Weatherly was let go from the series. They both chose to step away from the show.
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Tony & Ziva’s 10 Most Romantic Moments In NCIS, Ranked
Tony and Ziva might not have been an official couple in NCIS, but they still had plenty of romantic moments in NCIS, and these are their best.
Both actors were ready to move on. Both de Pablo and Weatherly being willing to return for a spinoff series means that they both found something more to explore with the characters they have already spent more than a decade playing. That means both actors might be interested in exploring the new facets of the characters beyond a single season.
If de Pablo and Weatherly are excited about the roles and ready to play them again, the audience for NCIS: Tony & Ziva can rest assured that there is likely going to be plenty of drama and plenty of fresh examinations of the two characters and their relationship – potentially long-term.
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