NCIS has recently taken a giant step closer to getting Season 18 on fans’ screens. The cast and crew are finally getting back to work, and Wilmer Valderrama is sharing his feelings about doing so after the massive delay. Earlier this year, NCIS was one of the many shows forced to end filming early on its previous season.
NCIS and its TV counterparts have been shut down for months, subsequently drawing their respective seasons to an impromptu end. Well, the sabbatical is nearing its end. Wilmer Valderrama has all of the feels as Season 18 gets up and running for its eventual debut. Fingers crossed it is all clear skies from here. Taking to his Instagram, Valderrama wrote:
After 6 months of our industry shut down.. the first table read to #NCIS’s season 18 feels like the beginning of a road to progression, as we get closer to bringing our show back to your homes. In many ways it feels like we, the cast and crew of our @ncis_cbs family.. are like astronauts embarking into the learning curb of a whole new world and reality.. here’s to a smooth lift off. Thank you to our producers and studio for working so hard, and making this day real.
Wilmer Valderrama included a picture from what I think was the socially distanced video meeting where NCIS’ cast and crew converged. Everyone looked pretty happy, including Emily Wickersham. Did she and Valderrama get some positive news on the Bishop/Torres front? Fans have a good reason to hope. Ahead of NCIS’ Season 18 renewal, the executive producer teased the pursuit of their relationship.
Whatever the case, Wilmer Valderrama opened up about reaching the milestone of NCIS’ first table read for Season 18. It is an event that has been up in the air ever since production ground to a sudden halt in the wake of the pandemic. Last season ended shy of its initially planned finale with a special episode.
While not the episode that NCIS originally planned to end last season with, it still boasted an incredibly cool cameo, with the real NCIS’ new director, Omar R. Lopez popping in. As for what Season 18 has in store, Wilmer Valderrama was not about to give anything away in his poignant and optimistic social media post.
Of course, Wilmer Valderrama knows it will not be business as usual, as NCIS looks to handle that delayed milestone episode. Without getting into details, Valderrama’s mention of astronauts and launching into space hints at the new precautions the cast and crew will take in resuming production. TV fans have witnessed on-set mask use and talk of quarantine ahead of filming.
Other series have taken on stringent restrictions to ensure the safety of its cast and crew, and NCIS will probably be no different. It has been a slow, yet certain return to work as CBS has prepared its fall slate in the absence of NCIS and the network’s other significant dramas. Wilmer Valderrama is hoping for a smooth return, and here is hoping he gets it.
Stay tuned to learn when NCIS will return to CBS, and take a look at this fall’s premieres. In the meantime, catch up with Wilmer Valderrama’s Torres in older episodes of the procedural. NCIS is one of many shows you can stream on Netflix, including 2020 arrivals.
