Note: This story contains spoilers from “NCIS” Season 24, Episode 1.
“NCIS” promised the return of an iconic character in season 24, but the premiere revealed just how central he will play to the show’s dynamics going forward — as well as his return to the show’s iconic intro theme.
Michael Weatherly’s Tony DiNozzo made quite an entrance in Episode 1, titled “Wayward Son,” which immediately followed the shootout involving Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) and McGee’s son Mateo (Patrick Keleher). It turns out that the person who was shot during this confrontation was Tony himself. He had heard about Mateo’s involvement in a potential crime and went to investigate, having just returned to Washington in hopes of opening a satellite office for his Europe-based agency.
“The audience was probably wondering, ‘Did Mateo shoot Torres? Did Torres shoot Mateo?’ It’s not that exciting if it ends up being one of those two options,” showrunner Steven D. Binder told TheWrap. “Suddenly we had Michael and the question of how to bring him back, and we decided to put those two things together. You don’t see that one coming, and it immediately brings him into the show.”
Viewers quickly learned that there was more to Tony’s return to the United States after the events of Paramount+’s “Tony & Ziva” spinoff, as his daughter Tali began studying at a new Boston-area boarding school. Ziva (Cote de Pablo) took a job nearby to keep an eye on her daughter, and Tony seemed to do the same.
His proximity to the Mateo incident also meant he could take the lead in the “NCIS” team’s opening case for Season 24, which came as the team was dealing with a tumultuous regime change, with Gabriel LaRoche (Seamus Dever) taking over as NCIS director following the death of Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll) last season.
Given his obvious antagonism toward the team, his new leadership role did not start well, especially after a kidnapping case involving the Secretary of the Navy’s daughter led to repeated mistakes as he attempted to intervene in the team’s investigation. This seemed to lead to the potential disbandment of Parker’s (Gary Cole) team by the end of the episode – until a fateful meeting between the secretary (Jillian Armenante) and Tony.
It is revealed that Tony was the government’s first choice to replace Vance as director of NCIS, but had passed up the opportunity. After getting the secretary’s daughter safely back, she told Tony she wasn’t giving him an option, officially cementing him as the new leader of the organization. And she’d already received Ziva’s seal of approval too.
“She says, ‘Look, your country needs you,’ and when you’re a guy like Tony DiNozzo and the Secretary of the Navy tells you that, and your family has signed on, you connect,” Binder said.
Tony’s new leadership position kicks off Weatherly’s season-long arc, providing a different dynamic between the team and its director than we saw with Leon Vance in the role.
“Tony is like the kid in high school who pulled the fire alarm, and then you come back 20 years later and he’s the principal,” Binder said. “He’s a very interesting director, very different from Vance. We wanted to bring in someone who’s going to shake things up, and yet isn’t going to be the badass antagonistic boss character, someone who’s on your team and very competent, but who, you know, is going to maybe solve cases with cinematic references.”
Binder also plans to introduce some new faces into the NCIS fold, who could become recurring players if the chemistry flows. And while LaRoche may be taking a break after losing the leadership role, Binder said not to completely rule him out just yet — as well as the possibility of Ziva visiting him while Tony is at work.
And although Weatherly is currently only slated for a one-season arc, Binder doesn’t plan on the actor sticking around much longer.
“Michael will feel like a series regular. He will be in many episodes,” Binder said. “We’re having a lot of fun having him there. It’s working great. We’ll see where it goes and I’ll blink and it’ll be five years later and he’s been there the whole time. I wouldn’t be surprised if that happened, but I also don’t want to judge what people want to do with their lives.”
“NCIS” airs new episodes Tuesdays on CBS and premieres the next day on Paramount+.
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