NCIS Upcoming Spinoff Owes Its Existence to OG Show’s Long Gone Character

The NCIS universe is getting a complete transformation for the upcoming TV season as the franchise will finally launch two more spinoffs revolving around the original show’s beloved characters and thus leaving the whole notion of location-based series in the past (at least for a while).

Apart from NCIS season 22 and NCIS: Origins that will take viewers back to the beginning of Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ career, CBS’ long-standing franchise will also make a return to Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David’s story that was dropped as soon as both quit the original series.

With all the high hopes fans cherish for the upcoming show, the latter also serves as a reminder that the beloved story would never have made it to the screens if it hadn’t been for another major character’s sacrifice.

It now may seem like Cote de Pablo’s Ziva David has always been around since the time of NCIS’ launch, though it’s still not really the case. The character’s first ever appearance was featured only in the original show’s season 3 when Ziva arrived as Caitlin Todd’s replacement in the MCRT.

Having come in the first ever season as one of the original characters, Caitlin quickly garnered all the love from fans, but also was quick to leave the series after being shot dead in the second season’s finale. The character’s passing remains one of the most heartbreaking moments of the show even more than twenty years later, but Ziva David still managed to earn everyone’s trust and become a good team member, just like Caitlin once was too.

It thus has been clear to most fans that NCIS: Tony & Ziva paved its way to the screens only thanks to Caitlin Todd, particularly Todd’s actress Sasha Alexander who initially was never meant to leave the show that early, though still decided to close this chapter of her career due to a tight schedule.

NCIS: Tony & Ziva is set to premiere on CBS this fall.