Credit: CBS; Paramount+ 

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Somewhere on NCIS, McGee’s ears are burning.

During the third episode of Paramount+’s Tony and Ziva spinoff (now streaming its first three episodes), the titular pair found themselves reminiscing about their former colleague while investigating a threat at a drone manufacturer.

“This is strange. I feel like we’re back at the job. Like we should be calling McGee and saying, ‘Hey, handle this,’” Ziva said.

“Yeah, how’s that gonna go?” Tony replied with a laugh, before acting out their hypothetical conversation: “‘Hey, probie, how you been? Sorry to, uh, do this to you, but, um, you know that Red Notice? Ignore it. It’s just a big misunderstanding.’”

Tony then noted that there’s not much McGee can do from D.C. But if he were to make a trip abroad, that would certainly help out Tony and Ziva while they’re on the run all over Europe, right? So will McGee or any other other characters from NCIS appear on the offshoot?

“Uhh, I cannot tell you that,” showrunner/executive producer John McNamara hedges during a Q&A with Soaps.com.

While the EP can’t divulge that info, McNamara says the spinoff references Tony and Ziva’s old colleagues, in ways both overt (like the McGee mention) and subtle (more on that below). Given the decades-long history that the pair have with Gibbs & Co., it’s only natural that Tony and Ziva’s NCIS cohorts would occasionally be on their minds even in their new lives.

“In terms of referencing old characters or older relationships or old dynamics, we just try to make it as much as you would do it in real life,” McNamara says. “If you had a job 5, 10 years ago, and it was very important to you, it was sort of life-changing for you, you would definitely bring it up. It would come up in conversation.”

The lessons Tony and Ziva picked up from their former colleagues are also on display in the new series, especially during a particularly dangerous scene in which Tony is attacked by remotely-controlled cars. In fact, you could say that Gibbs saves Tony’s life, in a way.

“There’s a nice moment in Episode 2. We don’t say anything, but Tony has a knife that he uses to puncture a tire from one of the murder cars,” McNamara points out. “Well, that’s absolutely on the Gibbs list of things to have at all times: always have a knife. But we don’t underline it. Hopefully, the audience that loves the show goes, ‘Oh, Gibbs,’ and the audience that doesn’t know the show was like, ‘Oh, that’s smart. He has a knife.’”