Cote de Pablo once explained why he left ‘NCIS,’ but the show’s creators never did. Her absence was recently explained by the show’s creators.
NCIS hit a home run in season 3 when they cast Cote de Pablo as Special Agent Ziva David. Pablo was cast after submitting a videotape audition, and the creators fell in love with her right away.
Unfortunately for fans, Pablo left the show in 2013, only to return briefly in seasons 16 and 17 in 2018 and 2019. She did not explain why she departed at the time.
However, the executives provided a new reason that fans may not have heard before.
The executive producer said that Cote de Pablo ‘Wanted To Move On’ from NCIS.
Cote de Pablo is one of NCIS’s most adored stars, and her abrupt departure from the show in 2013 sh0cked viewers. She didn’t explain why she was abandoning the character of Ziva David at the time.
The show’s creators discussed the matter with The Hollywood Reporter.
“With Cote, I think she had gotten to a place where she wanted to move on,” Charles Floyd Johnson, executive producer on JAG and NCIS, said the journal in September 2023.
“She was on the show for eight years, and about a year or two before she left, she told me, ‘I don’t know whether I want to do this forever, and at some time, I think I might leave.’ ‘Oh, Cote, please come on,’ I pleaded. It’s a hugely popular show. What plan do you have? ‘Ride this horse all the way to the gate.’ ‘No, I don’t think so,’ she replied.
Johnson noted that the shift from Pablo to Emily Wickersham, who played Eleanor Bishop, was challenging. “Audiences liked [Cote], but Emily eventually won,” Johnson explained. “However, I recall it being a little bumpy with her, where you’d get mail and people would say, ‘She’s no Cote de Pablo.'” As a result, we wrote her quite differently.”
Cote de Pablo stated that she quit because she did not like the way Ziva David was written.
NCIS’ executive producer stated one reason for Cote de Pablo’s departure, but Pablo gave another. She expressed dissatisfaction with the direction the writers were taking her character, Ziva David.
“Unfortunately, due to political issues and scripts that were not good enough, I chose not to [return to NCIS],” she told Hello! “See, I adore this character!” I spent eight years creating Ziva because I believed she wasn’t being treated with the respect she deserved.”
She mentioned that the writers intended to send Ziva “back to Israel” to live as a “unfortunate, miserable woman.”
“I didn’t think it was fair,” she went on to say. “I told them until someone can write something really fantastic for Ziva, I won’t come back.”
Pablo’s co-star, David McCallum, was disappointed that Pablo would leave the show. “I just don’t understand how a leading lady in a show that’s worldwide, who ostensibly wants to have a career as an actress, suddenly walks away from such a gem and just vanishes a couple of days before we start production,” he told Digital Spy in an interview.
Could she make a comeback with Michael Weatherly?
NCIS Season 21 fans would want to see Cote de Pablo return. Is it conceivable? While we doubt Ziva David will appear in the next season, Michael Weatherly has given fans hope for a reunion.
Weatherly tweeted good wishes for the new year in January 2023. “It’s time to look at time and enjoy the moment!” he said.
“We all would rather look at you and Ziva reuniting and enjoying that moment,” a member of the public said.
“Stay tuned… for this could be an interesting year for such’moments,'” Weatherly responded.
Does this imply that the NCIS creators are planning a reunion? We don’t know, but we hope to see them again.
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