We’ve seen glimpses of Leroy Jethro Gibbs before he was the Leroy Jethro Gibbs we got to know with Mark Harmon playing him on NCIS for 19 seasons, but now the newest series in the franchise, NCIS: Origins, is going to delve deep into that time. Austin Stowell takes over the role (Harmon narrates), beginning with the two-hour premiere on Monday, October 14.
In “Enter Sandman,” it’s 1991, NCIS is NIS, and Gibbs is back from Desert Storm, grieving after his wife and daughter were killed, and just starting his career as a newly minted special agent at the fledgling NCIS Camp Pendleton office. There, he forges his place on a gritty ragtag team led by NCIS legend Mike Franks (Kyle Schmid). The cast also includes Mariel Molino as Special Agent Lala Dominguez, Tyla Abercrumbie as Field Operation Support Officer Mary Jo Sullivan, and Diany Rodriguez as Special Agent Vera Strickland. Get a peek at them and more in the photos below.
“Mark Harmon has done a job that actors dream to do. He’s captured the world and so that is just slightly daunting,” Stowell told TV Insider as part of our extensive Fall Preview of the new CBS drama. “But getting to know Mark has really been paramount to me stepping into these shoes and trying to fill them.”
Added executive producer Sean Harmon (who played young Gibbs in flashbacks on NCIS and whose idea this series was), “I believe that very few people are actually ‘born leaders’ and are instead forged into them, and Gibbs is no exception. Digging into the backstory of ‘the boss’ seemed like a good opportunity to find out why Gibbs turned out the way he did and who was around to influence him on that journey.”
Check out photos from the series premiere below, then let us know in the comments section what you’re hoping to see in the prequel.
NCIS: Origins, 2-Hour Series Premiere, Monday, October 14, 9/8c, CBS