Tony’s (Michael Weatherly) reuniting with his former team on NCIS in Season 24 in a major way.
The original series star returns after exiting as a series regular at the end of Season 13, briefly returning for the tribute episode to the late David McCallum and his character, Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard, in Season 21, and starring in his own spinoff with Cote de Pablo, NCIS: Tony & Ziva, for one season. So far, few details have been revealed about what to expect, other than it’s “a season-long arc.”
That doesn’t keep us from having a list of things we need to see with Tony back on our screens on NCIS. Read ours, then share yours in the comments section below.
Ziva (and Tali)
Simply put, it’s time to see Tony and Ziva together on NCIS. (Both Weatherly and de Pablo returned separately in the time since their exits.) It was a major shock when everyone learned, after Ziva faked her death, that she had her and Tony’s daughter, Tali. We never saw them together onscreen. Then, in their spinoff, they had nearly gotten married, only to split, but were back together by the end. Plus, now that they are a solid family unit with Tali, why would Tony come back to the States for a major arc without Ziva and their daughter?
And a fun bonus would be getting to see Tali with McGee’s (Sean Murray) twins.
Marcell Piti / Paramount+
Tony & McGee team-ups
It was always fun to see Tony and McGee teamed up together, especially in the early days. (“We kind of added and extrapolated onto [the script] and had a lot of fun, and a lot of that made the show in that first decade,” Murray recalled to TV Insider in 2024 after Weatherly’s Season 21 return.) There’s no way that the series doesn’t bring that back, especially to see Tony’s perspective of how much McGee has grown from Probe to now Senior Field Agent.
Plus, we need to see Tony and McGee talking about the latter’s teen son, Mateo (Patrick Keleher), that he just learned about last season. After all, Tony was around 18 years ago when McGee was in the relationship with his mother. And it’s very possible that, depending on what exactly happened between Mateo and Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) in the last scene of the finale — the agent confronted the teen about suspicious behavior, and someone fired a shot — McGee’s going to need his old friend by his side for support.
Tony’s in touch with Gibbs
It’s the perfect way to get a crossover between NCIS and the prequel, NCIS: Origins, with Mark Harmon reprising his role as Gibbs in the latter for all 10 of its Season 3 episodes. It would be great to see Tony visiting Gibbs in Alaska, though a phone call — or even just one side of it — would work, too.
Tony and Palmer talks
Remember when Tony started turning to Palmer (Brian Dietzen) for advice? Both have come a long way since those days, but let’s have something that harkens back to them.
Mention of Vance’s funeral
When LL COOL J reprised his role as Sam Hanna ahead of his new spinoff, NCIS: New York, he mentioned that he was at Vance’s (Rocky Carroll) funeral. It’s hard to imagine that Tony and Ziva weren’t there as well, but let’s get it said onscreen that they were.
NCIS, Season 24, Fall 2026, Tuesdays, 8/7c, CBS