The NCIS franchise’s expansion internationally has been a hit! The first version to take the universe outside of the United States has slotted right into CBS‘ primetime alongside the other shows. In fact, it will be airing alongside the mothership and the prequel, Origins, this fall for an all-NCIS night.
NCIS: Sydney sees the franchise’s agency teaming up with the Australian Federal Police (AFP) with rising international tensions in the Indo-Pacific. Together, the members of this multinational Taskforce keep naval cries in check in the most contested patch of ocean on the planet. Below, we’ve gathered everything we know about Season 3, from a premiere date to the cast and more.
When will NCIS: Sydney Season 3 premiere?
NCIS: Sydney is moving nights, from Fridays to Tuesdays, this fall. It will premiere on Tuesday, October 14, at 10/9c.
Who’s in the NCIS: Sydney Season 3 cast?
Barring any shocks between seasons, the cast should remain the same: Olivia Swann (as NCIS Special Agent Michelle Mackey), Todd Lasance (as AFP Sergeant Jim “JD” Dempsey), Sean Sagar (as NCIS Special Agent DeShawn Jackson), Tuuli Narkle (as AFP Constable Evie Cooper), Mavournee Hazel (as AFP Forensic Scientist Bluebird “Blue” Gleeson), and William McInnes (as AFP Forensic Pathologist Dr. Roy Penrose).
There will be new characters, showrunner Morgan O’Neill told TV Insider after the Season 2 finale.
“Yeah, there will be a couple of new characters coming along in Season 3. And the new characters that will arrive will in a lot of ways further that idea of the past coming back to haunt you, not in any kind of obvious way, but they’ll take our characters down the rabbit hole,” he said. “And I suppose the question is, will they all make it back?”
How did NCIS: Sydney Season 2 end?
The finale delivered answers as to who was behind all their troubles all this time, and it connected back to Mackey. Her old friend Etienne (John Fabry) was seemingly helping the team with their latest case, only for JD to realize he was the one who was going to make off with $1.7 billion after making money building up international aid contracts following chaos in certain regions. Mackey stopped him before he could blow up a plane.
But there was a cliffhanger: Who was the woman waiting for Blue when she got home?
What will happen in NCIS: Sydney Season 3?
The new episodes will address, “What does Mackey do with the fallout from Darwin? What does JD do with the breakdown of his marriage? What does Blue do with a strange woman sitting in her living room, having tracked her down, waiting for her? The past coming back to haunt our characters is the central theme of the third season of the show,” O’Neill told us. “It’s definitely a case of accepting the reality that you can’t outrun your past and that if you don’t deal with it, it’s going to come back and hit you like a freight train. And in Season 3 it does.”
As for the potential for romance for Mackey and JD, “They’re both very, very aware of the fact that if there’s an emotional bond that’s building between them, it’s not something that anyone wants to entertain. They’re work colleagues. They’re heads of an office, which is this blended family between America and Australia, and to go there romantically would risk a whole lot,” said the showrunner. “So there’s a lot of reasons for them not to succumb to any kind of romantic tension. But that being said, that’s me being logical. As we know, our emotions aren’t necessarily always that logical, and so Season 3 will see a fair bit of that tussle between head and heart, I suspect, with Mackey and JD.”
When it comes to Evie and DeShawn, he views them as brother and sister but knows some fans see them differently. “Whether anything happens significantly moving forward in Season 3, I really can’t tell you, but I will tell you that there will be, and I don’t think I’m being too coy here, there’s the fly in the ointment that arrives in Season 3 that will really send that relationship into a kind of different realm,” he teased. “So there’s a fly in the ointment that arrives that will potentially upset that beautiful thing that they’ve got going.”
Is there an NCIS: Sydney Season 3 trailer?
Not yet! It’s too early.
Which other NCIS shows are airing in 2025-2026 season?
The mothership, NCIS, and the prequel, NCIS: Origins, were both renewed (for Seasons 23 and 2, respectively) at the same time as Sydney. And the new spinoff starring Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo in their NCIS roles, Tony & Ziva, will be coming this fall to Paramount+.
