NCIS’ Tony & Ziva Spinoff Confirms An Exciting Trend That Totally Changes The Franchise

The NCIS: Tony & Ziva casting update officially confirmed a major trend that will change the nature of the NCIS franchise. It takes a lot to fundamentally change an institution like NCIS, which has been airing the original series for 21 years. Little has changed about the original show’s format other than the ensemble cast of NCIS characters, which rotates necessarily as actors must come and go. The original series is returning for NCIS season 22, but it isn’t rewriting the playbook of what makes NCIS great. CBS is making big changes in their other series, however.

The franchise is gradually introducing massive changes throughout its spinoff series, and NCIS: Tony & Ziva is the most remarkable example of that. The series will lean into changes the franchise has tested over the last few years — it will feature the serialized storytelling of NCIS: Sydney, and the spinoff shows have one other vital detail in common. The change is present in nearly all the current NCIS shows, and the franchise has canceled most shows where it’s not. This significant trend will completely change the nature of the NCIS franchise, which started as a United States-based police procedural.