Tony’s ‘NCIS’ Return Creates a Problem the Show Can’t Ignore

Published Sep 2, 2026, 8:24 AM EDT Amanda M. Castro is a Network TV writer at Collider and a New York–based journalist whose work has appeared in Newsweek, where she is an Associate Editor, and The U.S. Sun, where she previously served as a Senior Consumer Reporter. She specializes in network television coverage, delivering sharp, thoughtful analysis of long-running procedural hits and ambitious new dramas across broadcast TV. At Collider, Amanda explores character arcs, storytelling trends, and the cultural impact of network series that keep audiences tuning in week after week. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Amanda is bilingual and holds a degree in Communication, Film, and Media Studies from the University of New Haven. Michael Weatherly’s Tony DiNozzo is coming back to NCIS for Season 24, and that should be an easy win. Tony is one of the franchise’s most recognizable characters; Weatherly has been away from the flagship for years, and his return gives the long-running procedural a chance to reconnect with one of its most popular eras. There is just one problem: Tony is no longer half of a will-they-won’t-they relationship fans have been waiting years to resolve. He and Ziva David (Cote de Pablo) are a family now. NCIS: Tony & Ziva finally gave Weatherly and de Pablo’s characters the reunion their fans had wanted, bringing Tony, Ziva, and their daughter Tali back together after years of separation. The Paramount+ series ended with the couple in a better place than they had ever been. Then NCIS brought Tony back without them. Tony and Ziva Finally Got Their Happy Ending Image via Paramount+ For years, NCIS treated Tony and Ziva as a story that could never quite reach its destination. Ziva left the series first, Tony eventually followed, and both characters returned to the flagship separately. Even when the pair finally reunited off-screen, their relationship remained something the franchise kept at arm’s length. NCIS: Tony & Ziva changed that; the spinoff centered on their relationship and allowed the characters to confront the baggage that had kept them apart. By the finale, Tony and Ziva had chosen each other and their family. That said, NCIS Season 24 isn’t bringing Tony back for a quick nostalgic cameo. Weatherly is returning for a season-long arc, with Tony establishing a Washington, D.C., satellite office for his private security company, Salus Mondiale. He becomes involved with NCIS again after learning that something is happening at his old workplace. It is a perfectly workable reason to bring Tony back. It also immediately creates a question the show now has to answer: Why is Tony here without Ziva? Showrunner Steven D. Binder has provided an explanation. Tali is attending boarding school in the United States, and Tony has moved to Washington to be closer to his daughter. Ziva is nearby, too, staying in the town where Tali goes to school so she can be close to her. In other words, Tony and Ziva haven’t broken up, aren’t living on opposite sides of the world, and they haven’t undone the ending of Tony & Ziva; they’re simply spending this season in different places. Tony’s Return Makes Ziva’s Absence More Noticeable Image via Paramount+ Tony still has relationships at the Navy Yard, as the characters who knew him before he left are still part of NCIS, even as the current team has changed dramatically. If Tony is going to spend an extended period working alongside them again, it would be strange for the woman he has spent years building a life with to exist almost entirely as an off-screen reference, which is especially true because Weatherly himself has emphasized that NCIS: Tony & Ziva is part of the same canon. Tony is returning as the same man who walked away from that series with Ziva and Tali as his family. The show can’t simultaneously insist that Tony & Ziva matters and then treat Tony’s family as though they’re conveniently irrelevant to his life. Of course, Ziva doesn’t need to become a full-time NCIS character again, and neither does Tali. The story doesn’t need to turn Season 24 into Tony & Ziva Season 2, but if Tony is going to spend months back at the Navy Yard, there needs to be some acknowledgment that the people waiting for him a few hours away are the most important part of his life. Otherwise, his return risks feeling strangely detached from the character’s own development. 'NCIS' Needs to Make Tony and Ziva’s Ending Mean Something Image via Paramount+ Ziva and Tali are supposedly nearby, which means the door remains open. If the family stays in the United States, NCIS has created a much simpler path for Ziva to return in the future. On the other hand, the boarding-school explanation exists primarily because CBS wanted Tony back but didn’t have de Pablo back, and if that remains the case for the entirety of Season 24, the show risks creating the exact problem it should have been trying to avoid. Tony’s story has changed: he’s a father, is settled into a relationship with Ziva, and has built a life outside the Navy Yard. Bringing him back should allow NCIS to explore how that life has changed him, rather than temporarily pretending that life doesn’t exist. Seeing Tony back at the Navy Yard is exciting, especially after so much upheaval within the franchise, but NCIS has already done the hard part, spending years getting Tony and Ziva to the same place, then giving them a happy ending after finally putting their relationship front and center. In the end, Tony can come back to NCIS without Ziva. The question is how long the show can keep doing that before her absence becomes the story. Release Date September 23, 2003 Network CBS Showrunner Donald P. Bellisario Cast Sean Murray Timothy McGee david mccallum Dr. Donald 'Ducky' Mallard Follows the Major Case Response Team (MCRT) from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), as they get to the bottom of criminal cases connected to Navy and Marine Corps personnel.