While the NCIS shows are chiefly meant to be enjoyed on their own, every now and then a crossover will bring the teams from these series together. This most recently happened during the NCIS Season 20 and NCIS: Hawai’i Season 2 premieres on September 19, with the threat of The Raven and his Unkindness followers requiring multiple characters from the flagship show and its latest spinoff needing to join forces. Now it’s been announced that the aforementioned shows will link up with NCIS: Los Angeles for the NCIS franchise’s first three-way crossover.
As revealed by EW, this NCIS crossover will see protagonists from all three shows teaming up to stop a “mysterious and highly trained hitman” whose targets include “several of their own.”Among the participants in this TV event will be Gary Cole’s Alden Parker, Wilder Valderrama’s Nick Torres and Brian Dietzen’s Jimmy Palmer from NCIS; Chris O’Donnell’s G. Callen and LL Cool J’s Sam Hanna from NCIS: Los Angeles; and Vanessa Lachey’s Jane Tennant, Yasmine Al-Bustami’s Lucy Tara and Noah Mills’ Jesse Boone from NCIS: Hawai’i, among others (though it’s probably best not to count on Mark Harmon returning as Gibbs). These crossover episodes are currently in production and will air next January on CBS.
Although this will be the first time three NCIS shows cross over at the same time, there was a period when three NCIS shows were all airing at the same time. However, NCIS: New Orleans only ever crossed over with the main NCIS series during its run from 2014 to 2021.
This will also be the first time that NCIS: Los Angeles has been involved with any kind of direct crossover with another NCIS show since Michael Weatherly’s Anthony DiNozzo, who starred on NCIS from its inception to Season 13, stopped by in the “Blame It on Rio.” That being said, from 2017 to 2020, Los Angeles had a handful of crossover episodes with JAG, the main NCIS series’ parent show that ended in 2005.
While it’s nice a three-way crossover is finally happening nearly 20 years after the NCIS franchise launched (if we’re not counting JAG), I am curious to see how closely tied these episodes will be. Will this be something akin to what we got between NCIS and NCIS: Hawai’i last month, i.e. two halves of a whole story? Or will each episode be watchable on their own, though viewers will obviously get the full experience watching all three parts with this hitman as the connective thread? Hopefully, this is clarified as we move closer to the crossover, but for now, whether you’re a fan of just one of these NCIS shows, two or all of them, you’re in for some major post-holiday festivities.
As we wait to learn when the three-way NCIS crossover will specifically happen in January, look through our 2022 TV schedule to learn what shows are left to premiere this year. If you’re interested in rewatching any NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles or NCIS: Hawai’i episodes, you can do so with a Paramount+ subscription.