The NCIS prequel series, NCIS: Origins, is slated to hit television screens in less than two weeks. The trailer has already given us a peek into Leroy Jethro Gibbs’s world circa 1991 at the start of his career with the agency that would eventually become NCIS. Austin Stowell plays the younger version of Gibbs, while Mark Harmon returns both for the premiere episode and to narrate the series as a whole.
We’ve already had the opportunity, knowing the cast ahead of time that we’ll be seeing the younger versions of other characters well. Mike Franks and Vera Strickland, played originally by Muse Watson and Roma Maffia in NCIS respectively, will appear in some sort of major capacity, at least in the show’s first season. This time around, they’ll be played by Kyle Schmid and Diany Rodriguez. Fans will also get to see a younger version of Gibbs’s estranged father, Jackson Gibbs, this time played by Robert Taylor. The blasts from the past beg the question though. Who else could we see?
In an interview with TVLine, co-showrunner David North has an open mind when it comes to seeing younger versions of characters we’ve already seen in the flagship NCIS. “Sure!” affirms North. “I don’t think we want to say no to anything.” The affirmation was in direct response to asking if it was possible we’d see the likes of Dwayne Pride from NCIS: New Orleans, played by Scott Bakula or NCIS: Los Angeles’s Hetty Lange played by Linda Hunt, but it seems like anyone is possible.
How Far Could ‘NCIS: Origins’ Take Us?
The show is set in 1991, not long after Gibbs’s wife and daughter were murdered. Fans know that his interaction with Franks on that case is what ultimately leads Gibbs to his career with NCIS (called NIS during Origins). As the 90s progress, Gibbs goes on to remarry (he’s a bit of a serial monogamist if you don’t remember) multiple times. By the time NCIS starts in 2003, he’d been married and divorced at least three times after Shannon’s death. With his penchant for redheads, he also, somewhere in there, has a failed engagement as well as Parisian love affair. The mid 90s are where things seem to really amp up for Gibbs personally and a balance of the crime-solving cases and the personal life are what make a police procedural like NCIS last as long as it has.
So does that mean we could see one or more of the women that eventually go on to be Gibbs’s ex-wives? If the show makes it all the way up to 1999 (which would likely put it at Season 8, which in seeing how its parent show is at Season 22, that doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch of the imagination), would we see a younger version of Lauren Holly’s Jenny Shepherd? With North’s affirmation of “I don’t want to say no,” it could very well mean that the door is open for anyone Gibbs could’ve crossed paths with prior to their first appearance on NCIS.
Make sure to see the two-hour-long season premiere of NCIS: Origins on Monday October 14. Catch up on the parent series on Paramount+