Warning: SPOILERS for the primary three NCIS: Tony & Ziva episodes are forward!
Like my colleague Laura Hurley, I loved watching the primary three episodes of NCIS: Tony & Ziva on the 2025 TV schedule, although in my case, it’s as somebody who adopted together with Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David on NCIS for years. Nonetheless, I wasn’t anticipating for the Paramount+ subscription-exclusive spinoff’s opening episodes to not solely preserve flashing ahead to a marriage, however one the place Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo’s characters aren’t tying the knot. As stunning because it was to see this, I used to be delighted to be taught the origins of this scene instantly from de Pablo and Tony & Ziva showrunner John McNamara.
What John McNamara Stated About NCIS: Tony & Ziva’s Wedding ceremony
This info got here to mild once I requested McNamara throughout my interview with him what the collaborative course of was like working with Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo as govt producers on NCIS: Tony & Ziva. After discussing how Weatherly got here up with the concept for this sequence to be a “globe-trotting spy thriller,” he then shared the vital contribution de Pablo offered when the three of them had been cracking the story:
… One notably Zoom was very memorable as a result of after studying the define, Cote mentioned, ‘Oh, I had this sort of imaginative and prescient of a gap, and I am like, ‘Oh what’s that?’ She goes, ‘Me in a marriage costume, Tony in a tux. We’re in church, fakeout, he’s not the groom.’ And I am like, ‘That is cool. So what occurs?’ She goes, ‘Oh, I do not know. That is your job.’ So all people sort of stayed of their lanes, however all people performed their half robust. I like that. I believed that was among the finest pitches I’ve ever heard from a gap.
That’s one hell of a solution to seize viewers’ consideration proper off the bat. John McNamara and the remainder of the NCIS: Tony & Ziva writing crew later hashed out the specifics, however props to Cote de Pablo for arising with that. The great new for the Tiva shippers out there’s that this marriage ceremony is certainly not legit, however relatively a part of a sting operation set for Nassima Benchicou’s Martine Aranow that requires Ziva to be the bride and Maximilian Osinski’s Boris Peskov to be the groom.
What Cote de Pablo Stated About NCIS: Tony & Ziva’s Wedding ceremony
So how did Cote de Pablo consider this concept? Chalk it as much as some good ol’ social media use. The actress, who final performed Ziva David in NCIS Season 17, defined to me:
I feel sooner or later I used to be scrolling via Pinterest or one thing like that, and I noticed this unimaginable image of this cliffside Italian villa the place a marriage was happening. And I keep in mind pondering, ‘Oh my God, this might have been such a lovely place to get married,’ After which I believed, ‘Oh, nicely we may completely discover ourselves in one other marriage scenario. And would not or not it’s enjoyable if it was in a spot like that?’
After this picture appeared in her creativeness, de Pablo “went into just a little little bit of lucid dreaming” and began placing collectively how it will be fascinating to see these characters “had this faux marriage ceremony, however most individuals thought they had been getting married, however they don’t seem to be getting married.” It’s all a part of a mission they’ve to finish, however the viewers doesn’t know but how they received into this unusual predicament. Cote de Pablo continued:
All I knew had been these kind of flashes of photographs. And I shared this very obscure, summary thought of this faux marriage ceremony happening and the place individuals might imagine that Tony and Ziva are getting married, however they don’t seem to be getting married and it is all a part of some kind of secret factor. After which John went, ‘Oh my God, I find it irresistible.’ After which, after all, you let go of that. You don’t have any thought what’s gonna occur. You definitely can ask questions, however on the finish of the day, actually, it is in [John’s] palms.
The excellent news is we gained’t have to attend for much longer to see how this marriage ceremony got here collectively. After struggling that main heartbreak along with his now-ex-girlfriend Nicole, Tony got here up the concept to have Boris and his fiancée, Anne-Marie Waldeck’s Fruzsi Gortva, to undergo with their marriage ceremony as deliberate so as to use it as a entice for Martine. The preview for this Thursday’s NCIS: Tony & Ziva episode, titled “Wedding ceremony Crashers,” will lastly see the occasions of this faux-matrimonial ceremony unfolding within the current day storyline,
Nonetheless, it doesn’t appear like the plan will go off and not using a hitch since we see that Ziva will find yourself chasing after Martine, and Tony will find yourself preventing the man who threatened Tali so as to get the 9.4 hacking machine. However to not fear, Tiva followers: simply because this marriage ceremony wasn’t meant for Tony and Ziva doesn’t imply these two gained’t get some kind of “pleased one thing” by the point the season’s over.