NCIS’ Wilmer Valderrama Addresses That Season 23 Cliffhanger

Published: June 4, 2026

By India McCarty

NCIS star Wilmer Valderrama just weighed in on that Season 23 cliffhanger. Warning — spoilers ahead.

“To be honest, I don’t think we figured that one out yet,” he told PEOPLE of the season’s dramatic end: Valderrama’s Special Agent Nick Torres confronting Mateo about his wrongdoing, punctuated by the sound of a gun firing.

The actor said, “I don’t think we have an idea yet. I asked, ‘What do we want from it,’ but I will tell you that someone does get hit and people might not like it.”

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“Look, every couple of years, you guys know NCIS has to make sure you’re watching. So we shake up the TV a little bit and we listen,” Valderrama explained. “And we listen to where you as fans want to see us do. So we always really pay attention to what our fans want to really experience on the show.”

He continued, “So if you ask me to speculate, I think there’s a major, major shakeup happening and that episode one is going to bring both…I don’t want to get in trouble for this one. Let me get in trouble. How about this? Next season, there’s some major changes and there are some major additions. What does that mean for Torres? I can only hope that he makes it out alive.”

Valderrama made similar comments in an interview with TV Insider, saying his character will be “drawing outside the lines” next season.

“We’re building towards something pretty big with this character,” he promised.

There have already been some big shake-ups on NCIS, specifically, the death of Director Leon Vance in the show’s 500th episode. Some fans have hypothesized that LaRoche (Seamus Dever) might take on the job.

“We’ve sort of played this game with him a little more than — he’s fantastic, too, by the way — we’d initially intended. And I think that’s also because when we’re looking for stories to tell,” showrunner Steven D. Binder told TV Insider. “But I think we’re going to play out his story probably once and for all in regards to his designs, and then we’ll see where that lands us.”

He added, “I think one of the other secrets to our success is we don’t make these grand decisions upfront and then try and service them because sometimes, and oftentimes, and most of the times, things just want to go a certain way. And if you’ve already decided you’re going to do this, it handcuffs you, and then you can’t go off in interesting and surprising ways.”

NCIS fans will have to wait until this fall to find out what’s in store for their favorite characters in Season 24.

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