The futures of the shows of the NCIS franchise have been uncertain throughout the 2020-2021 TV season, starting with the surprise cancellation of NCIS: New Orleans that raised the possibility that the end could be nigh for NCIS (which has had Gibbs in potentially career-ending trouble) and/or NCIS: Los Angeles. Fortunately, CBS has officially handed down another renewal following one for NCIS, and that's not even the only good news on the NCIS franchise front.
Like parent series NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles has finally been renewed, bringing its total count so far up to 13 seasons, adding to the number of seasons it holds over NCIS: New Orleans and still chasing the long run of NCIS. And despite the upcoming end of NCIS: NOLA, the NCIS franchise isn't actually getting any smaller. Just different! The NCIS: Hawaii spinoff that has been in development for the past couple of months has also received an official series order. Take a look at the announcement from CBS:
As if the news of the NCIS: Los Angeles renewal and NCIS: Hawaii series order wasn't good enough, fans officially won't have too terribly long to wait for either. The renewal for the 2021-2022 TV season hopefully means that, barring production shutdowns, the hiatus between Season 12 and Season 13 of NCIS: LA won't be any longer than usual. And the series order for Hawaii means that, like another spinoff that CBS has in the works, fans of this shared universe won't have relatively too long to wait to see the new show either.
That's not to say that NCIS: Hawaii will be ready to premiere in the fall, as "the 2021-22 broadcast season" can really mean anything from early fall to late spring, and a lot may depend on how CBS intends to launch the new series. Early reports about the Hawaii-set spinoff indicated that unlike NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS: New Orleans, NCIS: Hawaii would not launch via a backdoor pilot on one of the other shows.
Whether or not that has changed remains to be seen; spinoffs like LA and NOLA may have made more sense to spinoff from NCIS since they're all set in the lower 48 of the United States, and the NCIS franchise is established enough that Hawaii could reasonably stand on its own even at launch, or even just feature a character or two somehow from one of the other shows. Then again, NCIS: Los Angeles crossed over with Hawaii Five-0 back in the early days of that series, which has since come to an end, so crossover with a Hawaii show isn't inconceivable. And now NCIS: LA is coming back!
As for whether or not the full NCIS: LA cast will be back, only time will tell. Not many shows are able to hang onto the core cast for almost the full run of the series, and CBS didn't make any cast announcements at the time of the renewal. The real sticky issue that could arise is if the day comes when either Eric Christian Olsen or Daniela Ruah decides to leave before the other. That could spell either trouble or tragedy for Densi! Both actors have already posted about Season 13 on social media, however, which presumably means Deeks and Kensi are coming back.
For now, you can still catch new episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles on CBS Sundays at 9 p.m. ET, ahead of the remaining episodes of NCIS: New Orleans. For when you can find the series finale of NOLA and more, check out our rundown of upcoming TV finales.
