Former NCIS Star Reflects on Leaving Series After 8 Seasons

NCIS star Emily Wickersham opens up about how she's adjusted to life away from the long-running series.

According to CinemaBlend, Wickersham spoke about his experience transitioning from NCIS lifestyle to a more relaxed one during an appearance on Out of Order: An NCIS Podcast with the other protagonists of the franchise, Cote de Pablo and Michael Weatherly.”It took a while,” Wickersham said. “I left the show, found out I was pregnant a month later… So it was a mix of decompression and trying to really relax and figure out what it would be like without a job. Because as you know, it's all-consuming.”

“Your life is all NCIS when you're on that show,” Wickersham continued. “It's all day, every day, and you don't have a lot of time to do a lot of other things outside of that. So it was a real change for me.” Wickersham continued to talk about her move to New York shortly after leaving the series, recalling that “it was a weird moment in time. It was wonderful and weird. As you both know, it's weird to leave something that's been ingrained in you for so many years.” Wickersham added, “I don't know if I was necessarily ready, but it happened and it was amazing. I was ready to leave the show. It was time and I was ready to move on to something else, and I think this was the something else I was meant to move on to. So it worked out well.”

Your life is all
NCIS
when you're on that show.

Wickersham did it NCIS debuts as NSA analyst Eleanor Ray Bishop during the series' eleventh season in the episode “Gut Check.” Bishop's introduction made her the series' de facto replacement for Cote de Pablo's fan-favorite character, Special Agent Ziva David. Over the course of eight seasons, Bishop became an essential part of the series' main cast, even developing an implied on-screen romance with Wilmer Valderrama's Special Agent Nicholas Torres. The season eighteen episode “Rule 91” marked Wickersham's departure from NCISas his character resigns from the organization after admitting to leaking NSA secrets before going on a long-term undercover mission for the CIA alongside retired agent Odette Malone.

The franchise will see Tony and Ziva reunite for a new spin-off

While the Bishop of Wickersham is no longer part of the NCIS universe, Cote de Pablo's Special Agent Ziva David and Michael Weatherly's Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo are both set to return to their eponymous series, NCIS: Tony and Ziva. In August, fans got a glimpse of the stars on the Budapest set courtesy of a photo posted to social media. The upcoming series is one of the most anticipated in the franchise’s long history, and according to the official synopsis, it’s set to pick up “after Ziva’s presumed death, when Tony left the NCIS team to raise his daughter. Years later, Ziva was found alive, leading her to complete one last mission with NCIS before reuniting with Tony and their daughter in Paris.”

The series will see the trio on the run across Europe after Tony’s security company is attacked by mysterious assailants. Isla Gie will play Tony and Ziva’s 12-year-old daughter, Tali, with Amita Suman’s Claudette serving as the technical manager at Tony’s company and the main trio’s support network.

NCIS is currently available for streaming on Paramount+.

Source: CinemaBlend