Cote De Pablo Back On ‘NCIS’? Actress Makes TV Plans, But Will Ziva David Return?

Ever since Cote de Pablo left NCIS, fans have been pining for her return. The actress made the decision to leave the show after several seasons, but the way in which her character (Ziva David) left the series was very much open-ended, in that she wasn’t “killed off” nor did she leave on any kind of “bad terms,” so-to-speak.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, showrunner Gary Glasberg has always been rather optimistic when talking about Ziva’s possible return. However, now that actor Michael Weatherly has announced that he will be leaving NCIS after the current season, it might not be so easy to bring Ziva David back. Since the two had unresolved issues romantically, it seemed as though it would be relatively easy to write Cote de Pablo’s character back into the script. And ultimately, that’s what many fans wanted to see: Ziva coming back for Tony.

Cote de Pablo has been pretty clear about her career plans and hardly ever hints at a desire to return to NCIS. Headlines over the past couple of weeks, however, have tricked some NCIS fans into thinking that the actress had changed her mind. “NCIS alum set to return to TV series” read a recent headline from Parade. While fans couldn’t click the link fast enough, their hopes of Ziva David making a triumphant return to NCIS were quickly dashed.

The truth of the matter is that Cote de Pablo is rumored to be making a return to television as part of a series called Prototype. According to Deadline, de Pablo “is in negotiations to play the female lead opposite Jack Davenport.” The show will air on the Syfy Network some time in the not-so-distant future.

“De Pablo would play Laura Kale, a driven, extremely intelligent mother of two. Excited about a potentially world-changing machine being developed by herself and two partners, she is certain that she is on the brink of something history-making. Propelled by a shot at glory, she is not about to give up despite numerous setbacks.”

According to her IMDb page, de Pablo has already started filming Prototype.

While it’s not NCIS and it’s not the news that thousands of fans had hoped to hear, it does mean that Cote de Pablo could be back on television on a weekly basis. The last show that she did, Dovekeepers, was considered a mini-series, and didn’t keep the actress on air for a very long time.

Protoype would have Cote de Pablo in your living room week after week if it got picked up for the season. Many NCIS fans would likely be checking out the new program because they love the actress just as much as (if not more than) her character on NCIS. Several fans tuned in to Dovekeeper just to watch Cote de Pablo on television again, but it didn’t quite fulfill the void that she left behind when she parted ways with her NCIS co-stars.

Of course, no one is saying that Cote de Pablo’s role on any show will fill that void, but at least it is something. By agreeing to work on a different television series, it does seem to suggest that Cote de Pablo has no interest in reprising her role as Ziva David — at least not right now. She wants to take her career in another direction, and her fans are going to just have to be okay with that.

Who knows? Maybe Ziva David will come back for one episode to say a big farewell to DiNozzo.

[Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]