Last year’s NCIS episode paying tribute to the late David McCallum, who played Donald “Ducky” Mallard in the procedural’s first 20 seasons, ended on quite the surprising note. Michael Weatherly, who had exited NCIS in the Season 13 finale, reprised Tony DiNozzo in a surprise cameo appearance to share screen time with former costars Brian Dietzen (who co-wrote the episode) and Sean Murray. As it turns out, the new spinoff NCIS: Tony & Ziva, which is premiering on the 2025 TV schedule, played a big part in why Weatherly appeared at the end of “The Stories We Leave Behind.”

I had the pleasure of recently interviewing both Weatherly and Cote de Pablo, who starred as Ziva David on NCIS for eight seasons (plus guest and recurring appearances in Seasons 16 and 17) about NCIS: Tony & Ziva, which is pairing its title characters back together onscreen for the first time in over a decade. At the end of our conversation, I mentioned to Weatherly how much I enjoyed seeing him return to NCIS back in early 2024, and he told me this:

Yeah, and Cote and I did discuss that at length…. Because we knew we were doing what we were doing. We knew that this was coming, but we didn’t want to give away too much of what the audience would later find out in what you’ve seen in the 1st 4 episodes and beyond. But we really wanted to honor David. So you know it was a really tough call because I know that it would have been great for us both to be there.

Not to worry, dear readers, because while I have indeed seen the first four episodes of NCIS: Tony & Ziva early, I won’t be sharing any spoilers here. Frankly, there’s enough context provided in the spinoff’s first trailer to understand what Michael Weatherly’s talking about. The preview reveals that Tony and Ziva aren’t romantically together when the show starts, instead focusing on co-parenting their daughter Tali. So while both Tony and Ziva would obviously want to pay their final respects to Ducky, it wouldn’t have made sense for them to go to the memorial service as a couple.

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For added context, NCIS: Tony & Ziva was announced in May 2024, three months after “The Stories We Leave Behind” aired on CBS. So a cameo needed to be arranged that didn’t tip off the public to what was coming, and ultimately it was decided that it would be better for Michael Weatherly to appear on his own. As Cote de Pablo added:

Yeah, we talked about it and we really have to make a choice, whether it was Michael to go back to, meaning Tony or Ziva, we knew we couldn’t both be there because it would then blow the element of surprise that we were saving for the audience and for the show, the T&Z show. So it made sense for Michael to go. So he was able to be there for the representation of, in many ways, me because I couldn’t be there. And he did a beautiful job there, and it also made sense, but Michael was very close to David.

While it’s a shame that having Tony and Ziva back together on NCIS wasn’t possible, at least this fan-favorite duo is now only days away from returning to our small screens. Even better, Cote de Pablo requested these characters get a “happy something” by the end of the season before she agreed to sign onto NCIS: Tony & Ziva. So whatever unfolds on this 10-episode season that kicks off September 4 on Paramount+, at least we don’t have to worry about their story ending badly.

Meanwhile over on CBS, NCIS Season 23 will begin on Tuesday, October 14, with NCIS: Origins Season 2 and NCIS: Sydney Season 3 premiering afterwards the same night. It was announced earlier this week that Nancy Travis is coming the flagship show aboard to play Harriet Parker, the sister of Gary Cole’s Alden Parker.