Hours after news broke that NCIS: Tony & Ziva has been canceled and will not be returning for a second season on Paramount+, Cote de Pablo has shared a separate statement and memory from her time on both the mothership and the spinoff from the one released with Michael Weatherly.
“Twelve years ago, after my final scene on NCIS, Michael and I walked back to our trailers and this photo was taken. We had no idea then that Tony and Ziva’s story would one day come full circle,” de Pablo wrote in the caption of a photo on Instagram of her and Weatherly walking away from the camera. (De Pablo exited as a series regular in Season 11, then later returned in a surprise arc.) “Today, this photo carries a beautiful new meaning. May Tony and Ziva walk into their forever. Thank you all for your love and support ❤️”
Brian Dietzen, who stars as Dr. Jimmy Palmer on NCIS and was Weatherly’s costar for 13 seasons and de Pablo’s for eight, left a heart in the comments section. See the post and a screenshot below.
Cote de Pablo / Instagram
Earlier in the day, de Pablo and Weatherly said in a joint statement, “We feel incredibly lucky to have had the chance to play these characters once again and to tell the next chapter of Tony and Ziva’s story. Our deepest thanks go to our extraordinary cast, crew, writers, directors, and producers, and to our partners at CBS Studios and Paramount+ who helped make this dream a reality. But most of all, we want to thank the fans around the world who joined us on this adventure and finally got to see Tony and Ziva find their happily ever after.” Both stars shared that on their Instagram accounts as well, over a photo of them as Tony and Ziva together in what is now the series finale.
Because an alternate finale ending was scrapped — plans were for it to kick off a second season, showrunner John McNamara told TV Insider — we did leave Tony and Ziva in a happy place. They had gotten back together, they were raising their daughter together, and the future looked bright since they were no longer on the run, having cleared their names after Tony’s security company was framed.
Looking ahead while discussing the Season 1 finale, de Pablo told TV Insider in a video interview that she wasn’t sure if the couple needed to try to get married again after their first wedding day fell apart. “I do think that when two people are together, whether they are married or not, they’re still together. There’s an energy thing, and that it just is. And so, I don’t think they have to. I think what they need to do is really kind of acknowledge what they feel in honesty, and I think that’s the strength of the relationship,” she said.
When it came to Tony and Ziva moving forward, Weatherly wondered, “What’s the next level of their relationship? Does that mean that they have established the trust and that they are going to have a proper wedding and that Tali is going to start going to high school? I think there’s something about moving into a very solid place, and just when you think that everything is super solid, some other aspect of everything blows up.”
The official NCISverse Instagram account also posted a series of photos, with #TIVAFOREVER, of Weatherly and de Pablo from the show — and Dietzen wearing a hat expressing the same sentiment.
What are you going to miss most about NCIS: Tony & Ziva? Let us know in the comments section below.
NCIS: Tony & Ziva, Streaming Now, Paramount+
