Tony DiNozzo’s comeback is hinted at by Michael Weatherly, who played him on NCIS, along with another fan favorite. On January 9, the venerable CBS procedural will return for a major crossover event that will bring together NCIS with its two spinoffs, NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS: Hawai’i, for a three-hour story that will begin with the NCIS episode “Too Many Cooks.” The Hawai’i episode “Deep Fake” will follow, and it will end with the NCIS: Los Angeles episode “A Long Time Coming.” It’s a significant turning point for the franchise, bringing together many teams for a case that is personal.
Weatherly now strongly suggests that he’ll be returning to NCIS and won’t be by himself in a tweet in response to a fan. A viewer voiced their want to see DiNozzo and Ziva David (Cote de Pablo) reunited when speaking with Weatherly, who last played DiNozzo in the NCIS season 13 finale back in 2016. The actor’s response raises the possibility that the characters are making a comeback. View the following Twitter conversation:
Why Did Cote de Pablo & Michael Weatherly Leave NCIS?
DiNozzo decides to leave the club on his final appearance to care for Tali, a daughter Ziva had given birth to years earlier. As an ode to Ziva, he would start his time away with a journey to Israel and Paris. Since Weatherly left NCIS, de Pablo has made a cameo appearance on the CBS show. It was proven that Ziva was alive—just as DiNozzo appeared to know—but hiding out. Given these conditions, the couple’s ending wasn’t quite ideal. It has given rise to some conjecture regarding whether Ziva and Tony may have reconciled off-screen.
De Pablo initially gave the reason she quit NCIS as respect for her character, stating in an interview from 2016 that she “chosen not to [return to NCIS] because of political reasons and scripts not being good enough. After appearing as a guest again on the show in 2019, she would later clarify such statements, pointing out that they had been misinterpreted. In any case, de Pablo’s opinion that the bond between DiNozzo and Ziva was crucial impacted Weatherly’s choice to leave. Additionally, he stated that he wanted to try out a different character. He then took the lead in the May 2022 finale of the CBS procedural Bull.
Recently, Weatherly expressed interest in reprising his role as DiNozzo, and NCIS producer Steven D. Binder reiterated that opinion. Despite the lack of official confirmation, these clues are reassuring news for fans expecting to learn what ultimately happened to Ziva and DiNozzo, especially given how long it has been since Weatherly and de Pablo’s stints as series regulars came to an end. Even though key protagonists in the procedural have frequently died, including Gibbs, some exits have been less orderly than others.
