When Cote de Pablo answered questions about her "NCIS" departure during a Q&A in 2016, she said she left because she wasn't happy with the direction her character was heading in. "Unfortunately because of political things and scripts not being good enough, I chose not to [return to NCIS]," she said, adding that she has an immense fondness for Ziva as a character, but felt that she wasn't being done justice with her story arcs. The actor continued on, saying, "They were going to send [Ziva] back to Israel and make her an unfortunate, miserable woman ... I didn't think it was fair, so I said, 'Until someone can really write something fantastic for her, I won't come back."
It is worth noting that de Pablo has since claimed that those comments don't reflect the actual reasons for her departure. In a 2019 USA Today piece about the character's brief return to the series in Season 17, de Pablo said of her previous statement on the matter, "I think that was taken out of context at a certain point, and people start writing that to justify the idea of leaving." After clarifying that she didn't feel like it was the right time to discuss the reasons for her departure, she said, "But I didn't leave because I wanted to go or because I was ready or because I was tired. I didn't really have an option."
So, it appears that fans are still waiting on an official answer. It remains to be seen if she'll reprise the role again on "NCIS" Season 20 or beyond.
