‘NCIS’ tribute episode trailer: Donald ‘Ducky’ Mallard tribute
‘NCIS’ paid tribute to late actor David McCallum and his Donald “Ducky” Mallard character.
Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo are finally back as Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David in “NCIS: Tony & Ziva” ‒ and they’re bringing their 12-year-old daughter Tali (Isla Gie) along for the adventure.
As these exclusive first-look photos of the eagerly awaited “NCIS” spinoff show, the action family is camera-ready to highlight life on the run throughout Europe for the Paramount+ series coming this fall.
“Shooting ‘NCIS: Tony & Ziva’ was the biggest professional adventure of my life, and I can’t wait to let the world share in action, mystery and deep feelings,” Weatherly, who is an executive producer with De Pablo, says in a statement.
Weatherly promises “all the echoes” of the beloved “NCIS” couple known to fans as Tiva. But the new series will give viewers “a deeper groove on ‘Tony & Ziva’… and locations you can’t get on a backlot.”
The series starts as the couple raises Tali in Paris. Tony’s private security company is attacked, and the family is forced to flee across Europe while finding out who’s after them. The international cast and crew spent eight months in locations such as Budapest, Hungary, the Canary Islands and Paris, making the 10-episode season.
“To actually shoot this series in Europe was a gift,” executive producer John McNamara says. “We wanted to pull the audience into the authentically exotic and beautiful settings that Tony and Ziva are launched into.”
The cast includes Amita Suman as Claudette, Tony’s chief technical officer, and Maximilian Osinski (“Ted Lasso”) as Boris, a brilliant Russian computer hacker.
Who plays Tali in ‘NCIS: Tony & Ziva’?
The sizzle between Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo and Israeli Mossad agent liaison officer Ziva shot off immediate sparks starting in 2005’s Season 3, when De Pablo joined “NCIS.” The nontraditional love storyline remained even after De Pablo suddenly departed “NCIS” in 2013. In the 2016 Season 13 finale, Tony learned that Ziva had seemingly been killed in a mortar attack and ‒ on the same episode ‒ met their daughter, Tali, whose existence Ziva had kept secret. Tony left NCIS to care for Tali (as Weatherly starred in the short-lived CBS drama, “Bull”). De Pablo returned to “NCIS” in Season 17 for a four-episode arc that ended with Ziva joining Tony and Tali in Paris for a short-lived TV family happy ending. The new series featuring the reunited stars and 12-year-old Tali was formally announced in February 2024.
British actress Gie plays Tali at age 12 in “Tony & Ziva,” while Olivia Brody portrays her as a 7-year-old in flashbacks. The star couple’s TV daughter is “bright, headstrong, funny and fierce,” McNamara says. “She’s the perfect blend of her parents, which means when trouble hits, she runs right toward it.”
Weatherly, 56, had no problem hitting stride with his longtime scene partner De Pablo, 45, as the unconventional couple seeks their own version of happily ever after.
“It was surprising how Cote and I just fell into this new place with our characters,” Weatherly says. “Informed by the past, illuminated by the present and trying to see a future together ‒ these characters are on the adventure of a lifetime. Hopefully so is the viewer!”
Leave a Reply