NCIS: Tony & Ziva Star Says [Spoiler]’s Death Will Shake the Series to Its Core md24

NCIS: Tony & Ziva star James D’Arcy digs into one of the series’ most shocking deaths and explains why it “will raise the stakes” so dramatically going forward.

Speaking to TV Line, D’Arcy opened up about taking on the role of Henry Rayner-Hunt, one of Tony’s close friends from Interpol, while knowing the character’s grim fate going into the series. “John McNamara, who created the show, is an old friend of mine,” D’Arcy explained. “We did a pilot nearly 20 years ago, and that nearly killed my career because it didn’t take off… And then he decided he wanted to do it a second time!”

D’Arcy went on to discuss the impact of Henry’s death in NCIS: Tony & Ziva‘s fifth episode, which saw the character stabbed and fatally shot by Julian Ovenden’s Jonah Markham, who has been working against Interpol from within the organization along with Nassima Benchicou’s Martine Aranow. “The fact that they’ve killed off a character that was pretty integral at this point in the show will raise the stakes fairly dramatically, because you really don’t know who’s the bad guy,” D’Arcy said.

Credit: Image via CBS

“We don’t know who’s gonna die next. You don’t know: Is Jonah the bad guy? Or is he working for somebody else, or what’s happening there? I think it leaves it pretty open to the idea that anyone could die at any time,” he added. The latest NCIS spinoff, Tony & Ziva brings back Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo as Anthony DiNozzo and Ziva David who, after moving to Europe to raise their daughter Tali together despite being separated, come under fire from all manner of nefarious forces.

After being framed for a major cyberattack, Tony and Ziva are forced to make a run for it, living in the shadows while working tirelessly to clear their names and uncover the truth at the heart of the series’ mystery. Rounding out the cast of Tony & Ziva are Isla Gie as Tali DiNozzo, Amita Suman as Claudette Caron, Lara Rossi as Sophie Summers, Maximilian Osinski as Boris Peskov, Terence Maynard as Doctor Lang, and Sean Pertwee as Aaron Graves.

NCIS: Tony & Ziva Has Been Well Received

Since its premiere, Tony & Ziva has earned rave reviews from critics and audiences. At the time of writing, Season 1 holds an 88% critical rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, as averaged across eight verified critical reviews of the series. This is surprisingly close to the series’ audience-generated score, which currently stands at an 85% approval rating, as averaged across more than 100 verified user-submitted reviews. There is still plenty of time for those scores to shift, a NCIS: Tony & Ziva Season 1 is only halfway through its episode count.