NCIS, the popular television franchise, is coming Down Under as streaming service Paramount+, owned by ViacomCBS & CBS Studios, announced that a new iteration dubbed NCIS: Sydney is in the works. NCIS: Sydney will be the fourth spin-off from the original series after NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: New Orleans and NCIS: Hawai’i.
The latest spin-off will be the first NCIS show set outside of the US and according to Beverley McGarvey, ViacomCBS Australia and New Zealand chief content officer and executive vice president, “new Australian characters and locations” will be introduced.
The original NCIS follows Special Agent Gibbs who leads the Naval Criminal Investigative Service team as they investigate and solve various cases, and the three spin-offs have similar set-ups but with different characters. However, since there’s no real ‘NCIS’ agency in Sydney, it’ll be interesting to see whether NCIS: Sydney will acknowledge this or ask viewers to suspend their belief.
Twitter had a lot to say about the announcement of the new NCIS spin-off. Tweets ranged from excitement to ridicule (many thought Sydney was too safe for the show to be realistic). There were also casting suggestions and wisecracks about the Australian Government.
NCIS Sydney: Just where did the remaining $200k of the $10M government grant to the Double Bay Yacht Club go?
— Big Pappy (@HogYield) February 16, 2022
TONIGHT, on NCIS Sydney: A family is distraught after their Cayenne mysteriously took a ding on the rear passenger door in the pokey parking spaces at Coles Double Bay. Can the team find the culprit and restore the paint job before the next school drop-off?
— Paul Colgan (@Colgo) February 15, 2022
Production will begin later this year as NCIS: Sydney is currently slated for a 2023 release and NCIS producer & NCIS: Los Angeles creator Shane Brennan (who is actually Australian himself) will be involved with NCIS: Sydney, although his exact role has not yet been announced.
Casting and plot details have also not been revealed yet – aside from ‘NCIS: Sydney will feature local stories’ – so it’s unclear whether the new spin-off will focus on criminal investigators for the Australian Navy or, like the Emmy-nominated original, the American Navy. I guess we’ll only know when NCIS: Sydney launches on Channel 10 and Paramount+ next year.
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