NCIS season 15 spoilers: Joe Spano, Robert Wagner returning

File this under NCIS season 15 news we’re happy to hear, even if we saw it coming: Joe Spano and Robert Wagner are returning to the series.

This news was first reported over by TVLine, and it makes sense given that both actors have made fairly frequent appearances on the show over the years. Spano’s Fornell is one of the most important touchstones in the life of Agent Gibbs (Mark Harmon) at this point. They’ve been through a lot together, and they have one of the deeper friendships that we’ve seen with the series. Fornell helps to ground Gibbs outside of the job; he is so committed to that cause that every now and then, he does need some alternative presence within his life to help him remember that there are more things going on within the world.

Meanwhile, seeing Wagner again is great for his zeal and sense of humor, but also for providing us with another tangible connection to Anthony DiNozzo Jr. (Michael Weatherly). It’s an easy excuse to get Tony’s name thrown back out there on the show; while we wish that he would show up someday saying that Tony’s went off somewhere and located Ziva, that’s probably more of a personal thing than anything we imagine will come up in the show anytime soon. For now, we’re just happy to have Wagner back again. We’ll see what happens when it comes to the actual story as things move along. After all, it’s a long season of 24 episodes, and as a result of that, it’s certainly possible that in plenty of time, we could actually see multiple appearances from these two. For the time being, the only thing that can be said with absolute confidence is that we’ll be checking them out at least one time each this season.

Beyond all of that, we know that there’s a notable guest star from Girl Meets World appearing early on in the season, and in terms of regulars, you are going to be seeing Maria Bello join as a new full-time cast member at around episode 4. The show’s taking their time when it comes to her introduction, but indications are that she will be a significant foil to Gibbs and someone who could challenge him in many different ways. We’ll have a better sense of precisely what she brings to the show before too long!

What do you want to see when it comes to these NCIS characters in their latest return to the show? Let us know some of your thoughts / hopes right now in the comments!

Meanwhile, you can head over to the link here in the event you do want to get some other insight into the series and what’s coming up next. New episodes will start airing in about a month and a half only on CBS. (Photo: CBS.)