{"id":3737,"date":"2025-10-24T18:34:52","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T18:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/?p=3737"},"modified":"2025-10-24T18:34:52","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T18:34:52","slug":"ncis-tony-ziva-creator-cut-a-very-dark-ending-in-case-theres-no-season-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/?p=3737","title":{"rendered":"\u2018NCIS: Tony &#038; Ziva\u2019 Creator Cut a \u2018Very Dark\u2019 Ending in Case There\u2019s No Season 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cNCIS: Tony &amp; Ziva\u201d almost had a very different ending, but creator John McNamara opted to end things on a good note \u2014 in case the spinoff series doesn\u2019t snag a Season 2.<\/p>\n<p>The Paramount+ spinoff series reunited the titular fan-favorite \u201cNCIS\u201d characters and put them at the center of an international conspiracy involving AI, car chases, explosions and a road back to romance. Episode 10, titled \u201cFull Circle,\u201d followed Tony (Michael Weatherly) and Ziva (Cote de Pablo) working together with their new team to rescue their daughter Tali (Isla Gie) and stop Jonah (Julian Ovenden).<\/p>\n<p>The finale also brought Tony and Ziva back together romantically \u2014 with Tali\u2019s blessing \u2014 and ended with the couple hugging each other quietly in their Paris apartment, relishing in the silence after weeks of chaos.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-3738\" src=\"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/FB_IMG_1761330802166-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/FB_IMG_1761330802166-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/FB_IMG_1761330802166-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/FB_IMG_1761330802166.jpg 612w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was a very different ending to the finale that we shot, and I decided to cut it,\u201d McNamara told TheWrap, adding his hopes to use the \u201cvery dark\u201d cliffhanger footage to kick off a new adventure in a potential Season 2.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe final moment we went with is a credit to Cote and Michael. They are the ones who made that scene work, giving it a weight and power that I didn\u2019t realize it had when it was on the page,\u201d he said. \u201cOnce I saw the footage I was like, \u2018That\u2019s the ending.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Though fans in the U.S. and abroad have praised the spinoff series \u2014 which picked up the story of Ziva David and Tony DiNozzo almost a decade since they were last seen together on \u201cNCIS\u201d \u2014 McNamara noted that there have been no conversations with Paramount+ about returning for more episodes.<\/p>\n<p>Still, he and finale co-writer Joseph Mireles laid the groundwork for the story to continue. After stopping Jonah, the villain ended up dying in prison \u2014 with his former lover and spy Martine (Nassima Benchicou) knowing a little too much information about how it happened. And hacker Boris (Maximilian Osinski) saw his engagement with Fruzsi (Anne-Marie Waldeck) end suddenly, which opened him up to join Tony and Claudette\u2019s (Amita Suman) security firm in a more permanent position.<\/p>\n<p>The heartwarming ending also leaves some uncertainty for the central couple, since they only just agreed to start dating again and take things slow \u2014 a key ingredient to leaving the door open to a potential Season 2.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7871380\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ncis-tony-ziva-lara-rossi-amita-suman-cote-de-pablo-michael-weatherly-max-osinski-paramount-plus.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ncis-tony-ziva-lara-rossi-amita-suman-cote-de-pablo-michael-weatherly-max-osinski-paramount-plus.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ncis-tony-ziva-lara-rossi-amita-suman-cote-de-pablo-michael-weatherly-max-osinski-paramount-plus.jpg?resize=300%2C169&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ncis-tony-ziva-lara-rossi-amita-suman-cote-de-pablo-michael-weatherly-max-osinski-paramount-plus.jpg?resize=768%2C432&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ncis-tony-ziva-lara-rossi-amita-suman-cote-de-pablo-michael-weatherly-max-osinski-paramount-plus.jpg?resize=320%2C180&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ncis-tony-ziva-lara-rossi-amita-suman-cote-de-pablo-michael-weatherly-max-osinski-paramount-plus.jpg?resize=640%2C360&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ncis-tony-ziva-lara-rossi-amita-suman-cote-de-pablo-michael-weatherly-max-osinski-paramount-plus.jpg?resize=380%2C214&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 380w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ncis-tony-ziva-lara-rossi-amita-suman-cote-de-pablo-michael-weatherly-max-osinski-paramount-plus.jpg?resize=760%2C428&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 760w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ncis-tony-ziva-lara-rossi-amita-suman-cote-de-pablo-michael-weatherly-max-osinski-paramount-plus.jpg?resize=394%2C222&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 394w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ncis-tony-ziva-lara-rossi-amita-suman-cote-de-pablo-michael-weatherly-max-osinski-paramount-plus.jpg?resize=788%2C444&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 788w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ncis-tony-ziva-lara-rossi-amita-suman-cote-de-pablo-michael-weatherly-max-osinski-paramount-plus.jpg?resize=778%2C438&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 778w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ncis-tony-ziva-lara-rossi-amita-suman-cote-de-pablo-michael-weatherly-max-osinski-paramount-plus.jpg?resize=976%2C549&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 976w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ncis-tony-ziva-lara-rossi-amita-suman-cote-de-pablo-michael-weatherly-max-osinski-paramount-plus.jpg?resize=990%2C557&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 990w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ncis-tony-ziva-lara-rossi-amita-suman-cote-de-pablo-michael-weatherly-max-osinski-paramount-plus.jpg?w=1200&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 1200w\" alt=\"ncis-tony-ziva-lara-rossi-amita-suman-cote-de-pablo-michael-weatherly-max-osinski-paramount-plus\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Lara Rossi, Amita Suman, Cote de Pablo, Michael Weatherly and Max Osinski in \u201cNCIS: Tony &amp; Ziva.\u201d (Marcell Piti\/Paramount+)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not an optimist by nature, I\u2019m a realist. So it\u2019s all going to come down to the numbers,\u201d McNamara said. The three-episode debut of \u201cNCIS: Tony &amp; Ziva\u201d in September landed it the No. 8 spot in Nielsen\u2019s streaming originals list for the week of Sept. 1, gathering 371 million viewing minutes.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the only viewing data available publicly for the series so far, and only one piece of the data streamers look at to consider a renewal, McNamara noted, \u201cWe won\u2019t really know for a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Season 2 or not, McNamara was enthusiastic in his praise of Weatherly and de Pablo for leading the charge in creating this new chapter for their beloved characters, as well as to the rest of the cast and international crew who brought it all to life. Getting the stamp of approval from the \u201cNCIS\u201d fandom helps, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cNCIS: Tony &amp; Ziva\u201d almost had a very different ending, but creator John McNamara opted to end things on a good note \u2014 in case the spinoff&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3737"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3739,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3737\/revisions\/3739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}