‘NCIS’ season 15 kicked off with Gibbs and McGee being held hostage in Paraguay. HL talked EXCLUSIVELY with Sean Murray about how McGee is going to be dealing with returning home, fatherhood, and more!

NCIS, which airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS, is back in full swing. The season 15 premiere picked up right where we left off with McGee and Gibbs being held prisoner in Paraguay. The two agents managed to escape, but just because they’re out of Paraguay doesn’t mean the struggle is over. HollywoodLife.com chatted EXCLUSIVELY with Sean Murray about what’s next for McGee. Not only is McGee going to be dealing with the aftermath of what happened in Paraguay, he’s got a baby on the way!

In addition, Maria Bello has joined the NCIS cast! Sean was able to spill a few details about her character. Sean also talks about his love of music. He loves Coachella just like us! Check out our awesome Q&A with Sean below!

Given everything that happened in the premiere, is McGee going to go full force back into work? What can expect from the effects of being held captive?

Sean Murray: Well, I think there’s going be some long-lasting effects after going through something as traumatic as what McGee and Gibbs have gone through. I don’t think that’s something that just happens and everything’s back to normal. We’re not going to treat it that way. It’s something that’s going to stay with the characters, and we’ll see moments of that throughout the season.

Do you think Gibbs and McGee will be handling the situation differently?

Sean Murray: Yeah, I think so. I think they’re two totally different characters. But McGee and Gibbs have always had sort of a father-son bond, and I think the bond is even stronger after going through something like that together. How he’ll sync back into regular rhythm and his work will remain to be seen. I don’t think it’s going to be as easy for him to jump right back into work as some may think we would do on this show.

Are we going to see McGee preparing for fatherhood?

Sean Murray: I hope so! I think we’re going to see more Delilah and McGee and what’s going on with them. It’s a domestic side of McGee that we don’t get to see very often, and especially with a lot of these characters.

Do you want Delilah to have a boy or girl?

Sean Murray: I think McGee would like a little girl, probably. I think McGee would like a baby girl, yeah. But who knows? Maybe Delilah wants a boy.

Hopefully we’ll get to see the birth this season. I feel like that would be a life-changing moment for the show and your character.

Sean Murray: Yeah, I agree with you very much. It would definitely be a game-changer for McGee. I think we’ll see some of that stuff this season.

The beloved Maria Bello is joining the cast. What can you tease about her character and how she’s going to interact with McGee?

Sean Murray: McGee has a fairly early exchange with her when she arrives in episode four. She is a psychologist and a profiler. She begins to help us and chime in. We get help from her in regards to profiling and things that are very important for us to be able to do as far as effective work. She’s not one of the main agents in the main bullpen. She’s got her own office like Abby or Ducky or the director. Maria is fantastic. I got to do a scene fairly early on with her where she’s helping me profile an individual in order for us to get further in investigating a case. She just brings Maria to it. She’s Maria Bello. She’s fantastic. To be able to work with her and personally just interact with her is a blast. She’s new here and it’s so refreshing.

As far as the rest of the season, how does season 15 compare to the previous seasons?

Sean Murray: Season 15 so far is feeling really, really good. The episodes that we’ve been doing I think are really strong and our writers, their work has never been better. Everyone is as invested as ever. That’s one of the things that I think sets us apart from some of these series that have been around a long time. We’re constantly trying to move forward and make it better. No one’s phoning it in. I don’t know what the remainder of season 15 will bring — I know some of it, which I can’t really talk about — but it’s shaping up to be a really good one.

For 15 seasons, you’ve grown up as this character. Do you offer up to the writers anything you want to see for McGee?

Sean Murray: There’s a lot talk between the cast and the writers on our show. Our writers are on set the majority of the time. Their offices are in the same stages as we film, so not only is the writer of the episode we’re currently doing on set with us at all times, we’ve got the other writers coming down and hanging around. We’ll go up to their officers and talk to them about ideas, or they’re bouncing ideas off of us. Not to say that it’s some sort of equal collaboration. The writers definitely do their thing, and they do it incredibly well. But we’re very open to shooting around ideas.

Would you ever consider stepping behind to the camera to direct?

Sean Murray: It’s funny, I’ve been asked that. A part of me would be interested in doing that. I think part of it would kind of change your relationship with the crew and a lot of people. We’ve got such amazing directors. It would be a very hard thing to do technically because basically you have 3 episodes where you would be very busy as director. You’d be in pre-production, all the filming, and post-production, and you really would not be in 3 episodes very much if that was the case.

Now that we’ve talked all things NCIS, let’s talk about music. I heard you went to Coachella this year?

Sean Murray: There were too many people playing. You had Radiohead, who I’ve seen many, many times, Travis Scott, and Future. It was pretty amazing. There were so many people. I went to the very first Coachella back in the day when it was literally a couple of tents. I think one main stage equal to their small stage now. It was amazing and surreal, the first Coachella. I’m a total music nerd.

Are you a musician yourself?

Sean Murray: I’ve never taken any classes or anything. I’ve never been trained. I learned to play guitar by ear. I’ve also a good amount of gear, like the Apple Logic Pro X. It’s a hobby for me. I’m not creating songs over here, but I definitely spend my time playing with my toys and making some beats, singing along, and having my kids play with the microphone, that sort of stuff. It’s really just a lot of fun. The history of the different kinds of music is something I’m very interested in. I just read a book about the history of hip-hop. I picked up a lot of things I didn’t know about the early days of hip hop which was very interesting to me.

Who are you listening to right now?

Sean Murray: A lot of Future. A lot of producers I like a lot like Mike WiLL Made-It, and Metro Boomin is one of my absolute favorites. I love the new Post Malone. You know, my co-star Wilmer Valderrama was playing some in the hair and makeup trailer a couple of weeks ago. I think “Congratulations” was the song. But the single he just put out, “Rockstar,” is pretty amazing, and 21 Savage does a beautiful feature on it. You got to take the lyrics with a grain of salt, but 21 Savage is kind of a force to be reckoned with. I’m really waiting to hear the new Travis Scott stuff — Astroworld — which he keeps promising is coming but we’ll see. It sounds like he might have gotten Kylie Jenner pregnant.

We also asked Sean about filming the cult classic Hocus Pocus and the possibility of Thackery Binx returning for a sequel. Stay tuned for that!

HollywoodLifers, are you happy Gibbs and McGee are out of Paraguay? Do you hope Delilah has a boy or a girl? Let us know!