‘NCIS’ Season 18: Cote de Pablo Reportedly Isn’t Returning, But Here’s Why Fans Might See More of Ziva David
Cote de Pablo is a talented singer and actress, who has become well-known to viewers everywhere for her role in the series NCIS. As the character of Ziva David, de Pablo blazed a path for women in entertainment, providing a strong female role model for young girls everywhere.
After leaving the series in season thirteen, de Pablo recently made a highly publicized return to NCIS as Ziva. Now, with filming for NCIS thrown off course by the COVID-19 pandemic, many fans are wondering when they can look forward to seeing de Pablo in the police procedural drama once again.
Cote de Pablo is best known for playing Ziva David on ‘NCIS’
De Pablo was born in Chile in 1979. As a child, de Pablo found herself drawn to the world of musical theater and acted in several plays.
Her talent was recognized right away, and by the time she was fifteen years old, de Pablo began hosting the talk show Control. After hosting the series for around a year, de Pablo moved to New York City in order to pursue her acting career.
All throughout the late nineties and early 2000s, de Pablo worked in the entertainment industry, landing everything from commercials to small gigs on TV shows like All My Children.
De Pablo got her first big break in 2005 when she was cast as Ziva David on the police procedural drama, NCIS. The role would make de Pablo a star, and it remains her best-known work, even though she has gone on to appear in a variety of other shows.
Cote de Pablo made a shocking return to ‘NCIS’ in season seventeen
Right away, Ziva David became one of the most popular characters on NCIS, thanks in so small part to de Pablo’s smart, charming portrayal of the liaison officer. Ziva had one of the most intriguing character arcs in the series and the close relationships that she developed with other characters like Gibbs and Tony DiNozzo moved viewers to their core.
For years, Ziva was one of the main characters on NCIS. However, in the summer of 2013, it was announced that de Pablo would be leaving the show in order to focus on other projects.
From 2013 until 2019, de Pablo was absent from the show. Still, NCIS showrunners had a surprise up their sleeves, and in the season sixteen finale, de Pablo made a stunning return as Ziva David.
Her return to the show was one of the most shocking moments in television history, and when Ziva appeared on viewers’ screens, fans everywhere took to social media to express their delight.
Will Cote de Pablo be returning to ‘NCIS’ in season eighteen?
Ziva David played a big role in season seventeen of NCIS, and at the end of season seventeen, viewers saw Ziva get on a flight to Paris, to make her long-awaited reunion with Tony and her daughter. With season eighteen of NCIS on the horizon, fans are eager for more of Ziva — however, it looks as though they might be waiting a little while.
According to a recent report, Ziva David’s storyline is mostly wrapped up for the time being. NCIS showrunner Gina Lucita Monreal revealed: “We loved the Ziva character going very deep, and so, it was such an honor to get to revisit that story and tie up some of the loose ends that we had, and it was such an honor to get to work with Cote again. If there’s more story to tell, I’m the first to jump on board. I love that character, and I hope that it showed through those episodes.”
Based on Monreal’s remarks, Ziva David’s story is on the backburner — for now. Still, Monreal didn’t come right out and say that de Pablo wouldn’t be returning.
What’s more, de Pablo’s grande return in Season 17 was kept under wraps to keep it a shock for fans. The show pulled this off by only telling a handful of people, including Harmon and showrunners Frank Cardea and Steven D. Binder. The surprise scene was reportedly not even on a call sheet or final scripts, according to ET. When de Pablo filmed her cameo scenes, she reportedly entered through a back gate and filming took place after midnight with a skeleton crew.
It’s clear CBS knows how to keep a secret when it really matters and if de Pablo was to return, they wouldn’t be announcing it without a surprise appearance. As such, fans shouldn’t completely rule out that de Pablo won’t be returning. In fact, it would be strategic for CBS to have de Pablo return for the winter finale to ensure fans tunes back in for the mid-season premiere.
There are also a lot of unanswered questions about Ziva and Tony. Most fans really want to see de Pablo reunite with her co-star Michael Weatherly, so there’s a lot of fan-fulfillment opportunities for the NCIS team by bringing back de Palbo and Weatherly.
If not on camera, fans could potentially learn about what happens to Ziva and Tony after they reunite in passing from other characters. Fans held out hope for six years to see de Pablo return and her season 17 appearance is proof that anything can happen.
