Last year, the NCIS franchise entered previously-uncharted waters with its first international show, NCIS: Sydney. It paid off, as Sydney has been renewed for Season 2, and now new territory is set to be explored once again with NCIS: Origins, the franchise’s first prequel. The show following along with Leroy Jethro Gibbs at the start of his law enforcement career is set to premiere either later this year on the 2024 TV schedule or sometime in 2025 on the midseason lineup, and the latest round of casting news has come in, with Gibbs’ dad and two other roles being filled.
Jackson Gibbs was previously played by the late Ralph Waite in eight episodes of NCIS, and now Longmire actor Robert Taylor is set to play the younger version of the character. TV Line reports that Taylor will be a recurring guest star on NCIS: Origins, and he’ll share screen time with Austin Stowell, who’s playing the younger Leroy Jethro Gibbs. Taylor’s other credits include The Meg, The Newsreader and Apples Never Fall, the latter of which premiered to Peacock subscribers last month.
When NCIS viewers met Jackson Gibbs in the Season 6 episode “Heartland,” he and Gibbs had been estranged for many years, and even before then they had a strained relationship, which stemmed from Gibbs’ mother having left. However, they ultimately reconciled and grew close to one another in Jackson’s final years. When Ralph Waites passed away in 2014, the show wrote Jackson as having suffered a fatal stroke in the Season 11 finale, and Gibbs attended his funeral with Billy Dee Williams’ Leroy Jethro Moore, Jackson’s longtime friend whom, as is obvious, Gibbs was named after.
In addition to NCIS: Origins showing what Gibbs and Jackson’s relationship was like following the death of Gibbs’ first wife and daughter, the prequel has also cast Power Book II: Ghost’s Daniel Bellomy and Made for Love’s Caleb Martin Foote as Special Agent Granville “Granny” Dawson and Special Agent Benjamin “Randy” Randolf, respectively. The former is described as a “probie” who’s working as the Evidence Custodian’s assistant and looking to become a field agent, and the latter is the NCIS “golden boy” and father of young twins who shows Gibbs the ropes. Like Robert Taylor, both Bellomy and Foote will be recurring guest stars.
Austin Stowell is joined in NCIS: Origins’ main cast by Mariel Molino as Special Agent Lala Dominguez, Kyle Schmid as team leader Mike Franks and Tyla Abercrumbie as Field Operation Support Officer Mary Jo. Mark Harmon will narrate the series as the older Gibbs and is executive producing alongside his son Sean and showrunners David J. North and Gina Lucita Monreal. Origins is one of two new NCIS shows coming up, the other being a spinoff focused on Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David that will play exclusively for Paramount+ subscribers.
Keep your eyes peeled on CinemaBlend for more updates on NCIS: Origins. Let’s also not forget that the NCIS franchise just celebrated reaching 1,000 episodes, and “A Thousand Yards” commemorated this milestone with a cool tie-in to “Yankee White,” the first episode of NCIS.
