NCIS season 17: Maria Bello on Cote de Pablo’s return as Ziva

By the time the NCIS season 16 finale (entitled “Daughters”) aired on CBS a little bit earlier this spring, the cast was already done filming. Meanwhile, they haven’t had a chance yet to return to set for season 17 – everyone is getting a much deserved break after an incredible season 16! Why are we bringing this up now? Mostly, it’s to help explain why it’s been so quiet on the NCIS front as of late! We haven’t really had a great opportunity to hear from some of the show’s various cast members about the return of Cote de Pablo’s Ziva, even though it’s clearly one of the most joyous and talked about moments to hit this fandom in a rather long time.

What’s also joyous is getting to hear Maria Bello talk about it as one of the first cast members to speak in an interview with ET Canada. Bello expressed how she and the rest of the cast found out about Cote coming back a little bit before her arrival … but also how secretive the whole operation is:

“They told the cast a couple of weeks before, but we were under lock and key not to say anything at all. We had an idea it was happening … They [filmed her return] with just 20 crew members. She came in a back door and it was the middle of the night (laughs). It was top secret. We’re so happy that she came back. It’s so exciting! I have never met [Cote], so I haven’t gotten to work with her.”

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While there could be a lot of happy reunions between Cote and some of the various NCIS cast members, there are some people who will be seeing her for the first time. Think in terms of Diona Reasonover (Kasie), Wilmer Valderrama (Torres), Bello (Sloane), and of course Emily Wickersham (Bishop). We say “of course” with Emily because Bishop’s already made a connection to Ziva because of the events of “She,” the influential episode that really laid the groundwork for the return of Ziva in the first place. It’ll be fun seeing these new interactions and how Ziva gets along with some of these people. We do hope that she gets these moments — while it would be fun in order to see Ziva work alongside Gibbs on whatever is apparently threatening him, there is still a desire to see her around some of the other agents.

Bello was mum in the interview on Cote’s season 17 potential, other than noting that “there will definitely be a storyline there” — it’s kind of hard to say more since the actors may not even have any scripts yet for the new season!

Want some more NCIS coverage?

Then remember to check out the link here, since that’s where you can get our most-recent NCIS spotlight, geared all around the character of Timothy McGee. Meanwhile, share some of your hopes for the future of Ziva in the comments. (Photo: CBS.)

This article was written by Jessica Carter and you can follow her on Twitter here.