Curious World Staff
Earlier this season, NCIS bid goodbye to star Mark Harmon (Leroy Jethro Gibbs). That means that everyone from the original core cast from 2003 has either left or taken on a smaller role.
However, Michael Weatherly’s (Tony DiNozzo) recent social media activity has fans buzzing since he continues to tease his possible comeback. Is it possible that the original NCIS may return to the famous procedural?
In Season 19, Episode 4, ‘Great Wide Open,’ Mark Harmon’s Leroy Jethro Gibbs left ‘NCIS.’
Prior to the start of Season 19, reports circulated that Harmon’s role would be limited. But no one expected his character to exit the show entirely. However, that appears to be exactly what transpired in the season’s fourth episode, “Great Wide Open.”
At the end of that episode, Gibbs informed McGee (Sean Murray) that he would be staying in Alaska because he had found peace for the first time since the d3ath of his wife and daughter.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better person to watch my back for the past 18 years than you, Tim,” Gibbs said McGee before they hugged and each told the other how much he loved him.
The last image fans saw of Gibbs was of him fly fishing in his waders and casting his line with a smile on his face.
Michael Weatherly departed at the conclusion of Season 13.
Weatherly was one of the original NCIS cast members who appeared in the JAG backdoor pilot alongside Harmon before CBS ordered the spinoff to series in 2003. He was a fan favorite on NCIS for 13 seasons, mainly to his flirtatious banter with Ziva David (Cote de Pablo).
However, after de Pablo left the show in season 11, Weatherly says he missed their “wonderful dynamic” and their connection on and off-screen. It didn’t take long for the actor to understand it was time for him to leave as well.
This summer, the ‘NCIS’ alum teased a possible return.
“The badinage and fighting and flirting between [Tony and Ziva] and how they would swing from siblings to near lovers and back to buds, that was gone,” Weatherly remarked at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour in 2016. “And then I realized I’d been at the party for much too long.”
Weatherly teased his likely return to NCIS season 19 on social media before to the show’s launch. And he did so despite the fact that his own show, Bull, had been renewed for a sixth season.
Weatherly tweeted a photo in August indicating that he was on the set of NCIS for season 19. In the photo, he is looking directly at the camera while wearing a cap and jacket that are eerily similar to those worn by NCIS agents. “ncis Camera is King,” the post’s caption stated.
Michael Weatherly teases his return once more.
Weatherly has done it yet again. In early November, the 53-year-old published a photo of himself and Harmon on the cover of a 2013 issue of TV Guide.
“NCIS Scoop!” read the headline. And the interview with Harmon and Weatherly for the publication was about “living after Ziva.” Weatherly simply put in the caption of his post, “That time this happened: ncis.”
Season 19 of ‘NCIS’ features an entirely new cast.
If Weatherly makes an appearance on NCIS this season, he won’t recognize the majority of the cast. McGee, whom Tony lovingly referred to as “Probie,” was the only person left in the bullpen who had worked with the Very Special Agent.
Dr. Ducky Mallard (David McCollum) appears as the NCIS historian on occasion. He has, however, resigned from his role as a medical examiner. Which was his job while DiNozzo was still on the show. Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen), dubbed “autopsy gremlin” by DiNozzo, now fills that role.
Why would Tony show up if he didn’t have Gibbs or Ziva to return to? Weatherly’s return date and location will be revealed to fans.