The NCIS director position, currently occupied by Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll), is shrinking because of one troubling trend for the NCIS franchise. The cancelation of the island-themed NCIS spinoff NCIS: Hawai’i after season 3 brings yet another installment in the franchise to an end. It follows the recent cancelations of NCIS: New Orleans and NCIS: Los Angeles, which ended in 2021 and 2023 respectively. These decisions all contribute to a major constant of the franchise gradually losing its relevance.
The location-based police procedurals NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: New Orleans, NCIS: Hawai’i, and NCIS: Sydney are spinoffs of the original flagship NCIS series launched in 2003. The mothership has been on-air for 21 seasons, and has officially been renewed for NCIS season 22. With the cancelation of some shows, it makes way for new NCIS spinoffs, including two that have recently been announced, such as NCIS: Origins and NCIS: Tony & Ziva. Although the newly-added spinoffs will add to the lure of the NCISverse, they won’t expand the NCISverse in the same way as the now-canceled, location-based spinoffs.
Leon Vance’s NCIS Director Role Shrinks As Franchise Closes NCIS Offices
With the cancelation of NCIS: Hawai’i, Leon Vance’s role in the NCISverse is shrinking. The director hails from the flagship NCIS series, and it’s where the character is featured most, but the position of NCIS director oversees all the NCIS offices in the NCISverse. As such, any NCIS office in the NCIS franchise has the opportunity to interact with Vance. With the cancelation of the island spinoff, there’s one less office in the NCIS shared universe that Vance will oversee within the franchise. It furthers the trend started by NCIS: New Orleans when it was canceled after season 7.
Rocky Carroll has appeared across many installments in the franchise via his role as Leon Vance. He appeared in 10 episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles, six times in season 1 and once in seasons 2, 3, and 6. Vance also appeared in three episodes of NCIS: New Orleans, in the episodes “Carrier,” “Breaking Brig,” and “It Happened Last Night.” Most recently, Vance appeared in NCIS: Hawai’i in season 1, episode 22, “T’N’T.” In the future, Vance could make an appearance on NCIS: Sydney, which is the only location-based NCIS spinoff remaining after the cancelation of NCIS: Hawai’i.
What Shrinking NCIS Field Office Presence Means For The NCIS Franchise
The shrinking NCIS field office presence means that there are fewer opportunities for Vance and other characters to cross over between shows. Although Jane Tennant (Vanessa Lachey) could be featured on the flagship series like she and Kensi Blye (Daniela Ruah) were in the NCIS 1000th episode, it only lends the opportunity for a momentary feature, rather than a more established crossover like the franchise has done in the past. Having the core MCRT team interact with other NCIS offices introduces new characters across the entire franchise. As such, the decision to cancel the Hawai’i-based spinoff shrinks the entire NCISverse.
Although there could be opportunities for Vance to be featured on NCIS: Tony & Ziva in the future, because it takes place in the present, it hasn’t been teased that the shows will do a crossover this early on in the spinoff. Likewise, it won’t be possible for Vance to appear in the NCIS: Origins spinoff, which will explore the background of Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon), as NCIS:Origins will take place in the 1990s. It’s possible that Vance will get more screentime like he did in the NCIS 1000th episode to make up for the missing opportunities for his character.
