Cote de Pablo Felt She Finally Had a Good Reason to Return to ‘NCIS’

NCIS shocked many when Cote de Pablo initially left the series after 11 seasons. But she made her return to the franchise not too long ago, which she would’ve only done for a good reason.

How Cote De Pablo was convinced to return to ‘NCIS’

De Pablo initially left NCIS under peculiar circumstances, the details of which are still under wraps. She lamented over having to leave her NCIS fans the way she did. But she and the show’s team tried reassuring the fans that e Pablo’s character Ziva David would be given a proper and satisfying sendoff.

“We wanted to give her the most graceful, emotional payoff we could,” executive Gary Glasberg once told TV Guide . “It was a pretty magical moment. Cote took it and ran with it, and the emotion you’ll see on screen is very real.”

“ The greatest thing about this last episode is that Ziva doesn’t die,” de Pablo also added. “As long as a character doesn’t die, the character can always come back. Not that it would actually matter, because we bring back characters from the dead all the time on NCIS !”

But after leaving the show, de Pablo didn’t completely close the door on a return. It was up to NCIS showrunners to entice her back.

“I hoped that at some point something like this could happen and it’s just so the stars aligned and here I am with this guy,” de Pablo told ET back in 2019. “I said give me a really good reason to come back.”

The actor was encourgaed to return after a simple phone call where she was intrigued by the direction her character would be taking.

“They called my number and they really meant it,” de Pablo told KTLA 5 . “They were like, ‘We will have you in a lot of things. It will be challenging, it will be exhausting, and it will be rewarding in that sense.’ And it was great.”

Cote de Pablo was unsure about a ‘NCIS’ reunion with Michael Weatherly

A lot changed when de Pablo resumed her NCIS duties . Perhaps one of the biggest changes on the show was that her onscreen partner Michael Weatherly was no longer there. Weatherly left NCIS in 2016 to pursue other creative endeavors. Fans might recall his Tony DiNozzo and de Pablo’s Ziva David involved in an unresolved romance storyline before de Pablo’s own departure.

De Pablo was asked if a reunion with Weatherly’s DiNozzo might’ve been possible with her return. But at the time, she seemed unsure this could be the case.

“I think everyone is wishing for this to happen. Who knows? Who knows if it’s gonna happen? Who knows if it’s gonna happen now? I don’t think it’s gonna happen right now. But maybe in the future. Michael’s working. He’s working on a TV show called Bull , so he’s very busy. He’s a busy guy. So, I think a lot of things have to kind of line up for this to happen,” de Pablo said.

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But de Pablo didn’t rule out the possibility, and it seemed stars have aligned for both her and Weatherly. Recently, it was announced that the two would be the main stars of their own NCIS spin-off show. Production for this new series will begin in the summer, and is scheduled to air on Paramount +.

The details of this new series have been under wraps. But de Pablo teased fans about the show’s arrival while celebrating 1000 episodes of NCIS .

“1,000 episodes, that’s a big number. Congratulations. Congratulations to everyone involved,” de Pablo once posted on social media according to Movie Web . “To directors, to actors, to guest actors, casting directors. But most of all, to our beloved fans. And big kiss to them, because without them, none of this is possible. We can’t wait, Michael and I, to make you happy, yet again, exploring the characters of Tony and Ziva.”