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Cracking the case: NCIS: Origins star Austin Stowell on becoming young Gibbs in the ‘darker’ prequel series

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY – The actor says the young Gibbs-led prequel provides a “more raw look at these characters” and “gets much more personal” than the original “NCIS.”
When Mark Harmon departed NCIS after 19 seasons in 2021, it felt like the final time that fans would see his legendary character Leroy Jethro Gibbs grace their television screens ever again. However, just three years later, Harmon is officially bringing the special agent back in a brand new way.

NCIS writers and executive producers David J. North and Gina Lucita Monreal tell Entertainment Weekly that Harmon reached out one year ago about a project that he’d been working on with his son, Sean. The idea would go on to become NCIS: Origins, a prequel series that chronicles Gibbs’ first days at NIS Camp Pendleton — the precursor to NCIS — under team leader Mike Franks (Kyle Schmid). Harmon, who serves as an executive producer on the series alongside his son, also lends his voice as its narrator.
“One of the biggest jobs in creating NCIS: Origins was just going back to the original show and seeing what the timeline is, and how do we fit into that, and honor all of the things that have already been said and done in the original show,” Monreal, who serves as co-showrunner with North, explains over the phone from set. “So it’s like this giant puzzle that we’re working with.”

Another piece was finding an actor who could fill Harmon’s historic shoes. That is, until Austin Stowell entered the room. “We just knew when Austin came in that he was Gibbs,” he recalls. “He embodied it. His talent is limitless — his dedication to the role, studying Mark, studying the show — he has a similar leadership quality that Mark had on set that bleeds into Gibbs the character.”

Stowell, whose credits include Bridge of Spies and The Hating Game, remembers the exact date (January 8th!) that he first learned about NCIS: Origins. After an initial reading, the 39-year-old was jetted out to Los Angeles for an audition with Monreal, North, and Mark and Sean Harmon all in attendance. “At the end of the audition, after some direction from Mark, he said, ‘There you go. If I were you, I would just walk out of the room right now,’” Stowell recalls. “So I just walked out of the room. I went back to Vermont and went back about my life.”

When North and Monreal called Stowell to tell him he’d landed the role one month later, the actor nearly didn’t pick up. “Where I live is off the grid a bit,” Stowell explains. “I walked back into the house, just got back on to service again, and there was a phone call coming through. So, truly, two minutes before then, I wouldn’t have gotten the call. And it was David and Gina and they were telling me that, essentially, my life was about to change.” (The trio are aware that Stowell almost missing the call because he was in nature might just be the most Gibbs thing ever. “We laughed so hard about that,” North says.)

After learning he’d landed the role, Stowell began pouring himself into it both mentally and physically, learning everything he could about the Marines and adapting his fitness program. He’s also been “doing my due diligence to the fandom” by catching up on as many NCIS episodes as he can, often fitting them in while at the gym or cooking.

“When I first met David and Gina, they asked if I was going to be ready for such a big commitment like this and I told them, ‘You always have all of me,’” the actor confesses. “I just want to give everything to this. I know what it means to the fans. I know what Gibbs represents to a whole lot of people out there. I know what the show represents to a whole lot of people out there, and I don’t want to let them down. I’m giving everything I can to give them something new and fresh, but also something tried and true at the same time.”

It helps that the Gibbs viewers meet in NCIS: Origins has yet to fully embody the no-nonsense special agent from the original series. “The Gibbs that we find in our show — it’s not the guy that the fans are used to,” Stowell explains. “This is someone who’s going through a lot of pain, going through a time in his life where he doesn’t even know if he wants to stick around, quite honestly. He suffered a tremendous tragedy just four months before we pick up this show and there’s a lot of newness in his life. There’s lots of firsts going on right now.”

NCIS fans will recall that it was revealed in the third season that Gibbs’ wife, Shannon, and daughter, Kelly, were both murdered prior to the events of the show. He is very much still reeling from the immense loss of his family on NCIS: Origins. “I think this is totally fair to say that our show is a bit darker, a bit more introspective, than the Mothership,” Stowell says, referring to the original series. “It’s a more raw look at these characters. Gets much more personal.”

Along the way, Gibbs will get to know his fellow agents — from golden boy Benjamin “Randy” Randolf (Caleb Martin Foote) to Vera Strickland (Diany Rodriguez), Franks’ first partner who previously appeared in a 2013 episode of NCIS. And, speaking of Franks, Gibbs’ bond with the brusque team leader, played by Muse Watson on NCIS, will also be examined. “The dynamic between Gibbs and Franks is complicated,” North says. “It’s one that’s cloaked in secrecy to the other team [members], but it’s also very much a father-son relationship.”

Together, Monreal says the team will explore a new case each week, with a larger case that “really gets under a team’s skin in a deeper way” looming across the season. However, given the technological restraints of the ‘90s, they’ll have to use some inventive methods to track down their suspects — and utilize a few pay phones, CB radios, microfiche machines, and pagers, too.

“A show like this, you’re so used to going down to, say, Abby’s lab or Kasie’s lab, seeing her fingers dance on a keyboard and pull up DNA, and you find your suspect. We don’t have any of that,” North says. “That’s really solved by investigation skills and thinking things through. We’re using the emotion of the characters to really reveal who our characters are in the process of working these whodunnit cases.”

While Stowell isn’t trying to do an impression of Gibbs, he’s aware there’s a lot he can learn from Harmon about the character. “He’s lived this for 20 years, and he has this helpful knowledge about the character and about how he approaches certain things,” he says. “There are certain behaviors, and certain… call them lines in the sand, that are strong within Gibbs. And so I wanted to make sure I was paying respect to the man and to the character.”

He adds that he has frequent conversations with Harmon, Monreal, and North on how to best showcase Gibbs’ evolution throughout the season. “We talked about Gibbs Sense, like Spidey Sense,” he teases. “He isn’t fully formed. And again, that’s a big part of what I loved about this opportunity is that I get to go on that journey with the audience [and see] how Gibbs becomes Gibbs.”

And, even more than Gibbs, Monreal hopes that the show’s found family dynamic will entice both new and longtime fans of the franchise. “I think what makes the original NCIS so watchable and so beloved is that it’s really about a family, and we’ve tried to do that here,” she says. “We’ve created a family with our agents, and I hope that those family bonds shine through for our audience, and they want to come spend time with our family every week.”

NCIS: Origins premieres on Monday, Oct. 14, at 10 p.m. ET/PT, on CBS.

Gibbs Is Back!

TV INSIDER – ‘NCIS’ turns back the clock for ‘NCIS: Origins,’ the first prequel series (and show number six) in the ratings-blockbuster franchise.
Gibbs’ Rule #8: Never take anything for granted. That one hit us hard when Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon), the sometimes grumpy but always gutsy special agent in charge of NCIS, unexpectedly retired to go fishing in Alaska in 2021. We’ll get another chance to appreciate the “grab your gear” guy in NCIS: Origins, a 1991-set prequel in which the young Gibbs (Austin Stowell) starts work at what was then known as NIS at the Camp Pendleton office in California. The icing? Harmon returns to narrate.

“Mark Harmon has done a job that actors dream to do. He’s captured the world and so that is just slightly daunting,” says Stowell who watched numerous episodes to prepare. “But getting to know Mark has really been paramount to me stepping into these shoes and trying to fill them.”

Harmon’s key words of advice to Stowell were “trust yourself.” Harmon also acknowledges the challenge for an actor to play an existing character, saying, “This is a little different because some things are already in place and an audience knows where this leads years ahead.”

The idea for the series came from Harmon’s son Sean, who’d played the younger Gibbs in NCIS flashbacks. “I believe that very few people are actually ‘born leaders’ and are instead forged into them, and Gibbs is no exception,” says Sean Harmon. “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.”

Mark Harmon suggested the best people to create the series would be longtime NCIS writers David J. North and Gina Lucita Monreal who executive produce and are co-showrunners. They asked the senior Harmon to narrate.

The two-hour premiere introduces a Gibbs fresh back from Desert Storm, grieving the loss of his wife and daughter and trying to get his bearings with a new team. One of them is a younger version of a face familiar to NCIS fans, Gibbs’ confidante, Special Agent Mike Franks (Kyle Schmid, Six, in a role originated by Muse Watson as the older Franks).

“Franks is the one who brings Gibbs into NIS. It was an opportunity to perhaps save a lost soul,” says Schmid who emailed and spoke with Watson as part of his preparation. “Taking on a character played by such a wonderful actor is a bit of a challenge. You have to play by a certain set of rules. The mustache is a trademark of Muse’s. I wear dark brown contacts every day at work. I took on a dialect coach, so Kyle Schmid now sounds like Mike Franks all the time.”

The rest are new characters including Special Agent Cecilia “Lala” Dominguez (Mariel Molino).

“I’m interpreting someone who’s a former Marine, now a female agent at NIS and I’m excited to jump into that, especially in the Nineties, which is such an incredible era,” says Molino. “I love that there are no [cell] phones, no internet, no social media. Everything we portray is direct contact.”

So will any romance develop between her and Gibbs? “I’m trying to prove myself. It’s not a romantic vibe,” Stowell says. “They are kindred spirits, both bullheaded, stubborn and smart. They say opposites attract. So, what happens when people are the same?”

Gibbs’ first friend on the force is someone who’s not much like him at all: Special Agent Bernard “Randy” Randolf (Caleb Foote). “Gibbs is a bit of a lone wolf. Randy’s a bit of an extrovert. In this naval investigative setting, there’s hundreds of people, half of them in camouflage because it takes place on Camp Pendleton, and Gibbs is a deer in the headlights. Randy sees that and immediately goes out of his way to make this person feel welcome. We create a friendship pretty quickly,” Foote says. “It’s cool to create a character that helps Leroy Jethro Gibbs to become the great detective that he is.”

Not in the field but equally important in solving cases are the assistant medical examiner Dr. Lenora Friedman (Lori Petty, Orange is the New Black), and the head of the NIS forensics lab, Woodrow “Woody” Browne (Bobby Moynihan, Saturday Night Live).

“I’m the goofy scientist who figures out weird stuff. It’s like working with the Muppets, you immediately realize you are not the important part. You’re just there to make the Muppets look awesome,” says Moynihan, of supporting the NIS team. “I’m splicing a lot of videotape. I have a hundred million [paper] files. I don’t have a laptop. They show the old tech.”The first case will focus on a series of interconnected murders “that bounce off of our characters in a really emotional way,” North says. Adds Monreal, “Gibbs is thrown into this job and he’s in over his head, but in a way, this case is tailor-made for him, so he has an opportunity to shine.”

We’ll see a lot more emotion from the younger Gibbs than we’re used to as longtime NCIS fans. “The Gibbs that Gina and I wrote for so many years had learned to push it all that emotion down. This Gibbs hasn’t learned that yet,” says North.

NCIS: Origins, Series Premiere, Monday, October 14, 9/8c, CBS

NCIS: Origins Will Offer Something Completely New To The NCIS Franchise

SCREEN RANT – NCIS: Origins will introduce a new element to the NCIS franchise this fall, putting it in a league of its own. The prequel series will explore the origin story of one of NCIS’ central characters, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, the former Special Agent in Charge of the Washington Major Case Response Team. Mark Harmon portrayed the character for nearly two decades until the Gibbs character departed the series in season 19 when the actor exited the franchise. Now, the character will experience a revival with a new character, with The Hating Games’ Austin Stowell playing young Gibbs in NCIS: Origins.

While the character will return, Mark Harmon will not, at least not in an on-screen performance. This is despite much anticipation for his return to the NCIS franchise. Harmon’s son, Sean Harmon, who played young Gibbs in several episodes of the original series, has also moved on from portraying the role, hence the recasting. The franchise decided it was time for the character to have a new representation, but the Harmons won’t be taking a back seat. Mark and Sean will executive produce the ’90s-set NCIS: Origins. Beyond that, Mark Harmon will bring something entirely new to the NCIS franchise.

NCIS: Origins Will Have A Narrator

NCIS: Origins will feature a narrator, separating itself from every NCIS series that predates it. The narrative element suggests that NCIS: Origins will rely more on an underlying story, which Mark Harmon will tell from the perspective of the older Gibbs. The narrative tactic is similar to how the narrator contextualizes every episode of How I Met Your Mother or, more recently, Young Sheldon. The latter series is a suitable reference for what to expect from NCIS: Origins, as Young Sheldon explores the origin story of a central Big Bang Theory character, Sheldon Cooper, with Jim Parsons narrating.

Harmon has a distinct voice, and audiences hearing it while experiencing another side of his character will certainly have an impact. Hearing Gibbs’s voice while watching a different chapter of his story will help tie the elements together and make a more cohesive origin story for dedicated NCIS fans. Harmon’s narrating track can plant the series in the past while forging a new NCIS future. The franchise has never had a reason to narrate any NCIS series thus far, so Harmon’s return will make for something entirely new.

NCIS Typically Follows A Case-Of-The-Week Forma

The narrative element of NCIS: Origins will distinguish the series from the rest of the shared NCIS universe. Until now, the NCIS franchise relied heavily on an episodic format with case-of-the-week offerings resolved in a single episode. This storytelling tactic allows the show to reset before starting another episode, allowing viewers to, for the most part, enjoy each episode independently of what came before or after it. The NCIS franchise is a significant player in the case-of-the-week procedural genre, and its spinoffs used to follow the same format. However, NCIS: Origins’s underlying narrator element will tie the episodes together more.

The NCIS franchise has experimented with its narrative offerings as it moves into the streaming era, as content is catered more to streaming platforms than television sets. When the franchise launched NCIS: Sydney in 2023, the show dabbled with a serialized storytelling format that saw many story elements carry through the episodes of season 1. NCIS: Origins further challenges what audiences expect from the franchise by presenting an origin story. The franchise will continue the trend of diversifying the way NCIS tells stories when NCIS: Tony & Ziva premieres on Paramount+, as it will also feature serialized storytelling.

How The Narration Will Change Gibbs’ Story

Introducing the narrative element to NCIS: Origins will subvert what’s known about Gibbs. Mark Harmon’s character guards his thoughts and feelings in the original series. For instance, the series held back what happened to Gibbs’ wife and daughter in NCIS until season 3. Gibbs’ tendency to keep his guard up and retain some mystery is elemental to the character. That said, as the older Gibbs narrates the series, he is bound to open up about what he was thinking and feeling during crucial times, which will disestablish a core trait of the Gibbs character as Mark Harmon presented him.

Additionally, NCIS: Origins’ premise is different from anything the universe has ever presented. As such, it will introduce new elements to the franchise to tell its story. While Mark Harmon will return to the role that established the entire NCIS franchise, he will now subvert the institution that he helped to create by adding an element that will add more depth to the characters and story. It’s a promising development for a series that has dominated CBS for nearly two decades. When NCIS: Origins premieres in October, it will break ground for the beloved procedural franchise.

Mark Harmon on Why Austin Stowell Is the Perfect Young Leroy Jethro Gibbs for ‘NCIS: Origins’

PARADE – To date, two actors have played NCIS’ Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Mark Harmon, who played the role for 18+ years, and his son Sean Harmon, who played the young Gibbs whenever the series called for flashbacks to relate Gibbs’ backstory.

Now, there’s about to be a third take on Gibbs set in the year 1991 when Austin Stowell takes over the role on NCIS: Origins. The spinoff series premieres Monday, Oct. 14 as part of CBS’ fall lineup, and Stowell has released a first-look photo at his portrayal of the U.S. Marine Corps sniper as he becomes an NCIS agent.

With the image, Stowell wrote: “Cannot WAIT to share what we’re working on.💥#NCISOrigins @NCISverse @CBStv”

Harmon, who will narrate the prequel series and also serve as an executive producer, took part in the casting, which he spoke to following the Television Critics Association press tour this July. He told Parade what he had been looking for in an actor to play the role he had made famous.

“I always thought there was a calm that was important,” Harmon said. “It’s a lot for an actor to come into a room with that kind of a burden of a load to try to say, ‘Can I physically look like that person? Can I be that person?’ I thought Austin just was himself.”

It wasn’t just Harmon who saw something special in Stowell, but executive producer and co-showrunner Gina Lucita Monreal as well.

“He walked out of the room, and she said, ‘That guy is a star.’” Harmon continued. “That’s what she said. The truth of it is he lit the room. You’re in a room for a long time with people coming in one after another and you just go with an instinct. That’s what we’ve done.”

Monreal elaborates, “What I was excited about was the fact that he had the core of what I think Gibbs is, which is this broken character but also this immense strength. I feel like that’s really a difficult balance to achieve, and I think Austin does that.”

Monreal and her co-showrunner and executive producer David J. North conducted a long and exhaustive search for the right actor to play the role and for good reason.

“This character means so much to the world,” said North, who previously wrote for NCIS as did Monreal. “And, honestly, so much to us. At times, you’re watching people, and something didn’t feel right. But Mark, he made his opinions known, certainly, but at the same time, he really told us to trust ourselves and what we wanted to do. And, luckily, Austin came along.”

The idea for NCIS: Origins was the brainchild of Sean Harmon, who, as mentioned, played the younger Gibbs when the mothership would do flashback stories to explain his backstory. But Sean decided he didn’t want to star in the series.

“It has been an absolute honor to have stepped into the role and essentially to play a character my dad created over so many years, and it will always be something I hold close to my heart,” Sean said. “But it was, in truth, something I never really figured I wanted to make a career out of. I have a lot of stories to tell. And I’m absolutely jazzed to be stepping into an executive producing role and working with my dad in a different way and, obviously, David and Gina, who are the absolute best. I mean, we couldn’t ask for a better team on this. As far as casting Austin, to be in that audition room when he walked in there and to feel his talent and professionalism, as well as [the fact] he is a natural leader, and he is, on top of it, he’s just a great guy. ”

As for how Stowell developed his winning performance, he said, “I didn’t get a chance to talk to Mark before my very first audition, and so I was going off of what was on the page. I had this incredible roadmap in front of me that David and Gina had written. There were these really rich complex scenes that I was able to dive into. This is a Gibbs that is dealing with the loss of his wife and child. This is not the Gibbs that the world knows right now, the team leader who’s always so put together. This is somebody who’s broken. This is somebody who’s searching for his identity, trying to find himself and ground himself back in the world. It wasn’t until I got in the room for my screen test that Mark came up to me and said two words that I’ll remember forever, and he just said, ‘Trust yourself.’”

NCIS: Origins will begin in 1991 when Leroy Jethro Gibbs starts his career as a newly minted special agent at the fledgling NCIS Camp Pendleton office where he forges his place on a gritty, ragtag team led by NCIS legend Mike Franks (Kyle Schmid).

As for how it’s going so far, Harmon thinks they’re doing well and hopes the series gets a back nine, which should take it to 22 episodes for Season 1.

“It’s early, guys,” he said. “All I can tell you is this is a tough business and most of them don’t make it. We’ve got a shot here and I’m thrilled about this cast and thrilled about working with David and Gina. They’re as good as it ever got in 20-some odd years with creative on NCIS.”

NCIS: Origins will premiere on Monday, Oct. 14 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.

‘Three Women,’ Starring Shailene Woodley, Finds New Home at Starz

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER – The series based on Lisa Taddeo’s bestseller was developed at Showtime, who dropped the drama as part of Chris McCarthy’s efforts to lean more into the franchise model.
Showtime’s loss is Starz’s gain.

Lionsgate-backed premium cabler Starz is rescuing Three Women, the Shailene Woodley-fronted drama that Showtime dropped following Chris McCarthy’s arrival at the network. Sources say the series was shopped to multiple outlets, including HBO and Amazon, before landing at Starz.

Reps for Starz declined comment.

Paramount Global-owned Showtime originally snagged rights to the book in 2019 following a fierce bidding war. Showtime, then under David Nevins’ oversight, handed out a straight-to-series order to the drama which was eyed to premiere in 2022.

Following Nevins’ departure from Paramount Global, McCarthy was given oversight of Showtime and last week announced a rebranding of the network to Paramount+ With Showtime with an emphasis on franchises. Those plans were further revealed Monday with multiple Dexter and Billions offshoots in various stages of development.

Three Women becomes the latest castoff scripted series to land at Starz. The Jeff Hirsch-led cabler also recently picked up season two of the Lionsgate TV-produced comedy Minx after HBO Max reversed plans for a second season. The first and unaired second season, the latter of which was only days away from wrapping production, will both be available on Starz.

Woodley, DeWanda Wise, Betty Gilpin and Blair Underwood star in Three Women. Taddeo and Laura Eason (Showtime’s The Loudest Voice, House of Cards) executive produce with Kathy Ciric and Emmy Rossum. Louise Friedberg (Y: The Last Man, Borgen) will direct and exec produce the first two episodes. Production on the series has already been completed.

Three Women joins a scripted roster at Starz that also includes Outlander and its prequel, P-Valley, the Power franchise, Blindspotting, Heels, Hightown and the Party Down revival, among others.

Dumping already completed shows has become an increasingly popular yet depressing way for networks (like AMC) and streaming platforms (including HBO Max) alike to cut costs and take advantage of tax write-offs.