Get the Scoop on the New Addition to the 'NCISverse,' 'NCIS: Tony & Ziva'
The new NCIS: Tony & Ziva series will finally answer the question as to what happened to these two star-crossed lovers now that they have both resigned their jobs as special agents and finally been able to reunite and raise their daughter Tali together.
“We’re trying to address … the idea of trust, and how they move forward… they’re trying to make things work while also parenting and having a lot of challenges thrown at them,” Cote de Pablo, who plays Ziva David, told Deadline at the Monte Carlo TV Festival. “We wanted to take these two characters away from the Agency and put them in a world, and the world that was attractive to us was international.”
NCIS: Tony & Ziva will film in Budapest this summer and according to Michael Weatherly, who plays Tony DiNozzo, the series should be called Tony, Ziva & Tali because Tali is key to the story.
“Every choice that Tony and Ziva have to make in their adventure, their child is first and foremost in the front of their mind,” Weatherly told Deadline. “When we were on NCIS, the mothership, we didn’t have children. When you have a child, you have to navigate what is best for them. And then maybe you have a co-parent that you have a tumultuous relationship with… and oh, wait, we also have to save the world.”
Related: Tony & Ziva's 'NCIS' Spinoff Breaks a Major Rule
Here's everything we know about NCIS: Tony & Ziva to date:
What is the release date for NCIS: Tony & Ziva?
NCIS: Tony & Ziva just began filming, so no release date has been set yet.
Who is in the cast for NCIS: Tony & Ziva?
Michael Weatherly as Anthony DiNozzo Jr.
Cote de Pablo as Ziva David
Isla Gie as Tali: Tony and Ziva’s precocious 12-year-old daughter who is sick of being treated like a child. She’s more intuitive and vigilant than the adults around her give her credit for and she’s ready to prove this to them.
Amita Suman as Claudette: The Chief Technical Officer at Tony’s private security company and the only reason the place runs as smoothly as it does. There’s no problem Claudette can’t solve or code she can’t crack.
Maximilian Osinski as Boris: A Russian ex-pat and a brilliant computer hacker, one of the best and most elusive in the world. Boris lives outside the law and polite society and enjoys the anonymity and freedom that affords.
Nassima Benchicou as Martine: A former French intelligence agent with the Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE). She is elegant and cunning, playing both sides of any conflict masterfully to protect her own self-interest.
Julian Ovenden as Jonah: A former computer programmer for the NSA and now the Secretary General of Interpol. Charming, decisive and confident, Jonah sees the ways in which the world is broken and knows he can fix it.
Related: Mark Harmon on Leaving Gibbs Behind on NCIS and His Return for Origins
Terence Maynard as Dr. Lang: A deeply experienced therapist, gentle and probing, Dr. Lang treats patients with severe traumas and helps them find comfort and agency.
Lara Rossi as Sophie: A highly skilled professional with a background in the Special Air Service (SAS), Sophie brings a unique blend of maternal warmth and hyper-vigilance to her role as a caretaker for Tali.
James D’Arcy as Henry: A high-ranking official at Interpol, Henry has spent his career in law enforcement chasing international criminals. Career-focused with no wife or family of his own, Henry has always been happily married to his job.
Is there a trailer for NCIS: Tony & Ziva?
An official trailer for NCIS: Tony & Ziva has yet to be released since filming has just begun but check back here. We will post as soon as it’s available.
But we do have these stills that were released for the announcement:
What is NCIS: Tony & Ziva about?
As previously reported, the new series picks up with Tony and Ziva living in Europe, raising Tali together, but 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.
Where did the Tony & Ziva story end on NCIS?
The last time we saw the two together was in the Season 11 opener of NCIS, when we saw Tony and Ziva together at the airport in Israel, where Tony had traveled to find Ziva when she went missing. He did find her and it is obvious that their love for each other has finally been realized—off camera—by their goodbye, which included a passionate kiss.
Then in Season 13, Ziva was reported dead, allegedly killed when the David farmhouse in Israel was bombed. But there’s another bombshell. When Tony showed up for work the day after hearing about Ziva’s death, he discovered he has a daughter named Tali, who Ziva had kept secret from him. As a result, Tony quit his job as an NCIS special agent to raise Tali.
He told Gibbs (Mark Harmon), “I’m everything to that little girl now, and I’ve never been anybody’s everything before.” Gibbs understood and Tony left first for Israel and then to Paris, where he planned to raise Tali in the city that Ziva loved.
But wait! It turned out that Ziva wasn’t dead and she showed up in Gibbs’ basement in the Season 16 finale looking for help, but also upset that Gibbs had never searched for her. The help she needed was to find a woman named Sahar, who wanted her dead. Once that was dealt with and Sahar was no longer a threat, Ziva—after one final issue—was able to travel to Paris to reunite—off-camera— with Tony and Tali.
When NCIS: Tony & Ziva premieres, it will be the first time in 10 years that the two will be seen together onscreen.
Are there any spoilers for NCIS: Tony & Ziva?
Here is what we gleaned from an interview that Weatherly and de Pablo did with Variety at the Monte Carlo TV Festival:
“I think the idea of trust, and the idea of how this relationship moves forward is something that was intriguing to us as actors,” de Pablo told Variety. “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.”
Weatherly added, “When you think about Tali, who is really the third character in Tony & Ziva, the idea for her to think that her mother was dead, and then her mother is alive, but was running around the world and didn’t come home to protect her … Trust doesn’t mean truth, doesn’t mean honesty. Just because I’m telling you the truth doesn’t mean you can trust me. And I think that a lot of the relationships inside … I won’t give away anything […] You have a daughter who’s going to question the story. ‘No dad—you told me she was dead, and she just walked through the door.’ ‘Yeah, but your mom had reasons …’ ‘No, no, no. The facts are the facts.’
“And then what are your relationships like? Where do you stand with the truth? And who do you trust? I mean, these are like the core principles of the show.”
How many episodes of NCIS: Tony & Ziva will there be?
Paramount+ ordered 10 episodes for the upcoming series.
Could other NCIS characters appear on Tony & Ziva?
Brian Dietzen, who plays Jimmy Palmer told Deadline, “It sounds very atypical for NCIS as far as the storytelling because it won’t be a case-of-the week type of show. That said, if they say: ‘Hey we need Jimmy Palmer on a plasma screen’ at any point, I’d say, ‘Hell yes, that’d be fun,’ I’d do that in a heartbeat.”
And Wilmer Valderrama, who plays Nick Torres told the outlet, “I’d like to maybe have my character be undercover somewhere in Europe, to leave Washington D.C. and have my character embedded in Italy, France or London.”
That said, even though the cast members from the mothership have volunteered, CBS Studios President David Stapf said, “In all honesty, as it’s designed now, no, but never say never.”
How to watch NCIS: Tony & Ziva
NCIS: Tony & Ziva will be available exclusively on Paramount+.
Will NCIS: Tony & Ziva Air on CBS?
At this point in time, there are no plans to air Tony & Ziva on CBS, but as Stapf said about other cast members guest starring, never say never.
Related: Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo to Host an NCIS Rewatch Video Podcast
What is the ‘Off Duty: An NCIS Rewatch’ podcast About?
Before Weatherly and de Pablo headed to Budapest this summer to begin filming NCIS: Tony & Ziva, they launched a new weekly video podcast, Off Duty: An NCIS Rewatch, on Spotify. On the weekly NCIS podcast, fan favorites will rewatch, reminisce and reveal more from the popular TV series. And they won’t be alone. Joining them are present and past cast members Sean Murray, Sasha Alexander, Eric Christian Olsen and Jon Cryer, to name a few of the guests that will be joining them to talk about their time on the series and the impact it has had on TV and pop culture.