NCIS is reaching “rare air” in March, with the show’s 500th episode (the entire franchise reached 1,000 episodes in 2024). And milestone episodes are usually something special, so TV Insider, while talking to Brian Dietzen recently, of course had to check if it or other episodes could include returning characters — there are quite a few to pull from not only NCIS but one of the spinoffs as well.
“This season has been just terrific. It’s been really fun to do. We do have some returning faces, and I can’t say, obviously, who they are, otherwise it would spoil it for people who enjoy the surprise like I do,” he teased. “But one of the things that makes NCIS so great is that we do have familiar faces from the past that could pop up at any moment. And that is what’s going to happen over the next several shows.”
NCIS has, after all, been on for 23 seasons, and there have been several cast changes over those years. We even saw, recently, Adam Campbell reprise his role as young Ducky — on NCIS: Origins, after he appeared in four episodes of the mothership. Roma Maffia reprised her role as Vera on the mothership in the Origins crossover, and she’d love to return again. So, there are plenty of ways for actors to return.
With it now in its 23rd season, the series is going to be airing its 500th episode on March 17, 2026, and just last week, the cast celebrated the milestone.
“This last week has been a whirlwind because we’ve been fortunate enough to have the good folks from the studio and from the network come visit us, and from Paramount. And you realize how many episodes 500 is,” Dietzen shared. “We’re just working day by day up in Santa Clarita. You kind of lose the forest for the trees because we’re just kind of going up there doing scene by scene and episode by episode trying to make good shows happen, so, you don’t really understand the totality of it until someone says, ‘OK, everybody stop. Let’s just stop. Let’s eat some cake and talk about what it means for 500.’ It’s pretty rare air now that I’m looking around the television landscape. You go, ‘Man, there’s not a lot of shows that are doing this sort of thing.’ So I feel really humbled and really honored that I have a part in that.”
Which characters would you like to see return? Let us know in the comments section below.
