NCIS Officially Unveils Leon Vance’s Season 24 Cast Replacement

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Director Leon Vance’s spot in NCIS season 24 cast has been filled. In less than a week, the revamped NCIS slate will finally debut. There are several things to look forward to in the upcoming cycle, including Mark Harmon’s full-time return as Leroy Jethro Gibbs in NCIS: Origins season 3 and the premiere of NCIS: New York. As for the flagship, things are changing over at Navy Yard, primarily motivated by the unexpected death of Director Leon Vance.
Arguably the best character send-off that the show has ever done, losing Rocky Carroll remains difficult, especially since he had been in the series since 2008. In terms of narrative, however, Vance’s death leaves a power vacuum in the agency, which means that NCIS will have to fill the role sooner rather than later. As everyone waits for that confirmation, a new release from CBS confirms who’s replacing Vance’s vacant spot in terms of the show’s ensemble.
Michael Weatherly Completes NCIS Season 24’s Cast
Continuing its tradition, CBS has released the official poster for NCIS season 24, which includes Michael Weatherly’s Tony Dinozzo Jr. He effectively fills the spot that Carroll has left as Vance, becoming the seventh member of the ensemble. He joins Sean Murray’s Timothy McGee, Brian Dietzen’s Jimmy Palmer, Wilmer Valderrama’s Nick Torres, Diona Reasonover’s Kasie Hines, Katrina Law’s Jessica Knight, and Gary Cole’s Alden Parker. Check out the image below:
Weatherly’s NCIS return was confirmed during the off-season and on the heels of the surprising cancellation of Paramount+’s NCIS: Tony & Ziva. Per official details, Dinozzo’s homecoming to Navy Yard is coinciding with him trying to establish a security firm branch in Washington DC. A crisis in his old place of work motivates him to get involved. Unfortunately, he'll be back on his own, as Cote de Pablo's Ziva David will be out of state to accompany their daughter, Tali.
Who Will Succeed Vance As NCIS Director
Of course, this doesn't mean that Dinozzo will also be Vance's replacement in terms of the role Carroll played in the franchise. The NCIS directorship continues to be vacant, with CBS going through rotating interims to keep the position open, arguably for a proper narrative that will lead up to the eventual reveal of the agency's new leader. Admittedly, Dinozzo becoming the new NCIS director would be a very interesting turn of events, as it would mean that Weatherly will be back in the show beyond season 24.
That being said, arguably the best choice for the role is McGee, who may not be part of Gibbs' original MCRT team, but has been the single most dedicated agent to come out of NCIS's golden years. Murray has been a member of the cast since season 1 of the procedural, and considering everything that he has gone through, not to mention learning from the very best mentors, there's no one better to be Vance's successor — and even the late director knew it. Whether the creative team behind NCIS go down this route is currently uncertain.
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NCIS
6/10
- Release Date
- September 23, 2003
- Network
- CBS
- Showrunner
- Donald P. Bellisario
- Directors
- Dennis Smith, Terrence O'Hara, Tony Wharmby, James Whitmore Jr., Thomas J. Wright, Michael Zinberg, Arvin Brown, Rocky Carroll, Diana Valentine, Leslie Libman, Tawnia McKiernan, Colin Bucksey, William Webb, Bethany Rooney, Alrick Riley, Jeff Woolnough, Alan J. Levi, Lionel Coleman, Martha Mitchell, Peter Ellis, Michael Weatherly, Edward Ornelas, Stephen Cragg, Tom Wright
-
Sean Murray
Timothy McGee
-
David McCallum
Dr. Donald 'Ducky' Mallard
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.