‘NCIS’ Season 22 Begins Production: Everything Else We Know So Far

Meredith Jacobs July 18, 2024, 12:14 pm

Wilmer Valderrama as Nicholas “Nick” Torres, Sean Murray as Timothy McGee, Katrina Law as Jessica Knight, Gary Cole as Alden Parker, and Brian Dietzen as Jimmy Palmer in 'NCIS' Season 21 finale - 'Reef Madness' — Robert Voets / CBS

NCIS, even 20+ seasons in, continues to be a hit, and the franchise just keeps growing. Three spinoffs have already aired and ended (New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Hawai’i), there’s now an international version (Sydney), and two more are coming (the prequel Origins and Tony & Ziva, featuring Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo reprising their roles from the mothership). And it all stems from JAG, from which NCIS is a spinoff.

The mothership will be back for a 22nd season in the 2024-2025 season; the show was renewed in April along with CBS comedy The Neighborhood. Amy Reisenbach, president of CBS Entertainment at the time said those two shows “are the very best definition of a CBS comedy and drama. They embody authentic storytelling with heart, humor and family dynamics.”

Season 21 did end on a cliffhanger. Read on for where the procedural drama left off and what we know about Season 22.

Where did Season 21 leave off?

In the finale, Jessica Knight (Katrina Law) had a decision to make after she was presented with a new job opportunity (Chief REACT Training Officer) that would take her away from the team and her boyfriend, Dr. Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen). He ended up finding out in the worst way and tried to protect himself by pushing her away and essentially breaking up with her. At the end of the episode, she told Vance (Rocky Carroll) she was taking the job.

7 Burning Questions for 'NCIS' Season 22

Also, while trapped with Knight and injured, Parker (Gary Cole) saw a young girl he called Lily, and a flashback to his childhood appeared to show him with the same girl. But when Knight later asked him about Lily, Parker claimed he didn’t know who that was.

Is Katrina Law leaving?

That has yet to be seen. For now, what we know is that Law hopes that she’s not leaving, as she told TV Insider as part of our NCIS: Case Closed aftershow for the finale. “The writers said that they were going to bring me back, but they lie sometimes, so we’ll see what happens,” she added.

But she also knows that her character is “at a crossroads” and could truly go off and take the job—just because she said yes doesn’t mean she’ll even step foot on a plane—and then decide to return to D.C.: “Maybe she… realizes that she truly loves her NCIS team or maybe that she doesn’t want to do a long-distance relationship, or maybe she just wants to be back in a relationship with Jimmy full-time. Maybe something happens with the NCIS team that calls her back. I think there’s a whole plethora of reasons that could make her either come back or stay.”

What do we know about Season 22?

Nothing specific yet! But nothing about the end of Season 21 suggested we need to worry about Cole, Sean Murray (McGee), Wilmer Valderrama (Torres), Dietzen, Carroll, or Diona Reasonover (Kasie) leaving.

Has filming started?

It appears so! On July 17, Dietzen shared a photo of his character’s glasses, as you can see below. “These are going on my face now,” he wrote in the caption with the hashtags for the show and season number. “Hello Jimmy Palmer. Welcome back everyone!”

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A post shared by Brian Dietzen (@briankdietzen)

When will NCIS Season 22 premiere?

NCIS will kick off its 22nd season an hour earlier than usual, at 8/7c on Monday, October 14. That’s because the prequel, NCIS: Origins, is getting a two-hour premiere that same day starting at 9/8c. The following week, on October 21, both will move into their regular time slots, with NCIS at 9/8c and Origins at 10/9c.