‘NCIS’ Fans Can’t Hide Excitement Over Ziva’s Return in Season 17 Trailer

CBS released the first trailer for NCIS Season 17 on Thursday, getting fans even more excited for the return of Cote de Pablo‘s Ziva David. De Pablo returned to the series towards the end of Season 16, and is expected to appear in four more episodes this season to help Gibbs (Mark Harmon) survive a new challenge.

For the past three years, the NCIS team has assumed Ziva was dead, but she made a surprise return in the Season 16 finale “Daughters.” It was not immediately clear if Gibbs was just seeing a vision or if Ziva was really alive, but she definitely is.

In the new trailer, Ziva leads Gibbs down a tunnel and he demands to know who they are running from.

“There’s a woman… her name is Zahar. She wants me dead and now she’s after you,” Ziva told Gibbs.

“Who is she?” he demanded.

“I do not know,” Ziva replied. “I’ve never seen her.”

Back at NCIS headquarters, the rest of the team is not happy that Ziva is alive and they were not told about it right away.

Fans on Twitter were so excited to see Ziva back in action.

“All the fandom say you thank you for this,” one person wrote.

“I am really happy to see her again!” another wrote.

Ziva was originally only expected to appear in two episodes of NCIS, but showrunners Frank Cardea and Steven Binder confirmed to Parade earlier this week that she will be in four.

“The initial genesis of this story was — and this is a clue — it’s something that has been part of the fabric of the show, her character and the introduction of her character from the very beginning,” Binder told Parade. “So, we’re playing with the DNA of Ziva David in terms of this jeopardy. This isn’t some newly created arch-nemesis conspiracy theory or conspiracy that she’s tried to get out from beneath. This will tie into the lore and history of the show.”

De Pablo initially left the show over a disagreement with the direction of Ziva, but the writers finally came up with a plot to entice the actress back.

“We came up with the idea and we approached Cote,” Cardea explained Parade. “She wanted to know what the storyline was going to be, and we basically pitched her the arc of her episodes. She came out and had a meeting with Steve, me, the writer and Mark Harmon and she loved it, and here she is.”

NCIS Season 17 starts on Tuesday, Sept. 24.

Photo credit: Sonja Flemming/CBS