'NCIS' Season 25 Officially Confirms Michael Weatherly's New Role Status

There are very few television characters who can disappear for a decade and return as though they never left, but Michael Weatherly has managed to do exactly that with Tony DiNozzo. After spending years away from the flagship NCIS series, the fan-favorite character has returned to Washington, D.C., and found himself in a position that would have seemed almost unthinkable when he first joined the agency. But while his promotion has helped usher in a new era for CBS’s long-running procedural, there’s already one rather important question hanging over his future. Just how long is he planning on sticking around this time?

NCIS showrunner Steven D. Binder has officially addressed Michael Weatherly‘s future as NCIS Director Tony DiNozzo beyond Season 24, suggesting that the actor could remain with the series for Season 25, although no final decision has been made. Speaking with TV Insider, Binder explained that the creative team is approaching the actor’s return one season at a time, but admitted that he’s thoroughly enjoying having DiNozzo back in charge.

• He reads ground the way other people read a room.
• He will stand between you and the worst of it without discussing it.
• He says almost nothing, and never the wrong thing.

• The 1982 original came from David Morrell’s 1972 novel, which ends very differently.
• Stallone cut most of his own dialogue in the edit to make the character nearly silent.
• Five films across thirty-seven years, from 1982 to the fifth in 2019.

• He is better in the room than he is on paper, and he is excellent on paper.
• He will not explain the plan, and the plan will work.
• He treats charm as a tool, and it is a remarkably effective one.

• Eon has made twenty-five Bond films since Dr. No in 1962, across six actors.
• Denis Villeneuve is directing the next one for Amazon MGM, which took creative control in
  2025.
• The search for the new 007 was still running through 2026, with screen tests under way.

• He has read the thing nobody else thought to read.
• He will risk the whole plan for the artifact, and be right about half the time.
• He improvises better than most people prepare.

• The Cairo swordsman scene was improvised on the day because Harrison Ford had dysentery.
• Raiders was filmed in about 73 days, which was fast even in 1981.
• Dial of Destiny in 2023 was Ford’s fifth and last outing, at the age of eighty.

• He turns whatever is in the room to his advantage.
• He is funniest when things are at their worst.
• He has never once agreed that it is over.

• Die Hard came from Roderick Thorp’s novel Nothing Lasts Forever, a sequel to a book
  filmed in 1968.
• Nakatomi Plaza is Fox Plaza, which was the studio’s own headquarters at the time.
• Bruce Willis was a television comedy actor then, and a long way down the casting list.

• He takes the risk himself rather than assigning it.
• He is three moves ahead and will not say which three.
• He treats your survival as the actual objective.

• Cruise hung off the side of an Airbus A400M at a thousand feet for the opening of Rogue
  Nation.
• The HALO jump in Fallout took 106 takes, filmed at dusk for the light.
• The Final Reckoning in 2025 was the eighth film, and was sold as the last.

Will Michael Weatherly Return for ‘NCIS’ Season 25?

We take these things one season at a time. On the other hand, you blink and it’s Season 24. So I don’t really know. Network television is a real hand-to-mouth endeavor in terms of getting these scripts on time. We’re doing 20 episodes in a season where a streamer does eight episodes in 25 months. So we’re taking it one step at a time. Certainly, it’s been really great having him in that chair, and I don’t see any reason why it should slow, but I don’t know that we’re looking quite that far yet.

We take these things one season at a time. On the other hand, you blink and it’s Season 24. So I don’t really know. Network television is a real hand-to-mouth endeavor in terms of getting these scripts on time. We’re doing 20 episodes in a season where a streamer does eight episodes in 25 months. So we’re taking it one step at a time. Certainly, it’s been really great having him in that chair, and I don’t see any reason why it should slow, but I don’t know that we’re looking quite that far yet.

The current cast includes Sean Murray (Hocus Pocus) as Timothy McGee, Wilmer Valderrama (That ’70s Show) as Nick Torres, Katrina Law (Arrow) as Jessica Knight, Brian Dietzen (From Justin to Kelly) as Jimmy Palmer, Diona Reasonover (Clipped) as Kasie Hines, and Cole (Office Space) as Alden Parker. Meanwhile, the wider franchise continues expanding through NCIS: Origins, which features Austin Stowell as a younger Leroy Jethro Gibbs and Mark Harmon reprising his iconic role in the present-day storyline.

NCIS Season 24 airs Tuesdays on CBS, with episodes available to stream on Paramount+.

Follows the Major Case Response Team (MCRT) from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), as they get to the bottom of criminal cases connected to Navy and Marine Corps personnel.