Why did Tony leave NCIS? Nine years later, Paramount built an entire series out of what came next

They figured it out eventually. It took them until 2025.

What happened to Tony on the show

Ziva David's farmhouse is destroyed in a mortar attack, and Tony flies to Israel believing she's dead. Mossad director Orli Elbaz then informs him of something Ziva never did: he has a daughter, Tali, roughly two years old. Tony resigns from NCIS to raise her, moves to Paris, and privately holds onto the theory that Ziva is alive — no body was ever recovered.

Why Weatherly actually left

Nothing dramatic. He was tired, and the part had stopped changing.

"I was burnt out by NCIS, and I was ready for a new challenge," he told reporters in 2016.

He's also pointed to Cote de Pablo's exit two seasons earlier as the turning point. The Tony-and-Ziva dynamic was the engine of his character, and once she was gone in season 11, playing DiNozzo became a repetition exercise. The departure was amicable enough that Weatherly moved straight onto another CBS show, Bull, which ran six seasons from 2016 to 2022.

The one time he came back

Weatherly returned exactly once as a guest: season 21, episode 2, "The Stories We Leave Behind," the tribute episode following David McCallum's death. A short scene with Jimmy Palmer, and that was it. He was referenced plenty in the intervening seasons — actually appearing was another matter.

The show built out of the exit

Then Paramount+ turned the loose thread into a franchise entry. NCIS: Tony & Ziva premiered September 4, 2025 with three episodes, running 10 total through the October 23 finale, with John McNamara as showrunner. The premise picks up directly from what season 13 left dangling:

• Tony and Ziva are together in Paris, raising Tali, now played by Isla Gie.
• Tony runs a security company, which gets attacked in the first episode.
• They go on the run across Europe, chased by people neither of them can identify.
• They're both executive producers, which is one way to guarantee the story goes where you want it to.

The supporting cast included Amita Suman, Maximilian Osinski, Julian Ovenden, Lara Rossi, and James D'Arcy.

Is there a season 2?

No. Paramount+ passed on a renewal in December 2025, with Weatherly and de Pablo issuing a statement thanking the fans who "finally got to see Tony and Ziva find their happily ever after." The timing wasn't subtle — Paramount's merger with Skydance had installed Cindy Holland as the new direct-to-consumer chair, and the slate got a fresh set of eyes.

Nine years to answer the question. Ten episodes to close it.