When Mark Harmon stepped down from his long-held spot at the top of the NCIS call sheet and bid farewell to portraying Leroy Gibbs, fans were immediately flooded with feelings, and many have spent the past two years hoping for his return. Those who are clamoring for the CBS drama to bring Gibbs back aren’t taking into account that it was almost definitely Harmon’s decision to leave, however, and if and when he ever pops back onto our TVs for more, that’ll be his choice, too. But it sounds like he might be less inclined to jump back into the role now, with some rumored behind-the-scenes drama causing a mini dust storm.
NCIS’ showrunner Steven D. Binder has been quite open about wanting to bring Harmon’s Gibbs back into fold at least one more time before the drama hangs up its branded hat, and current stars such as Sean Murray have voiced similar expectations for the character’s return at some point. But according to RadarOnline, any kind of forward momentum on that front has stalled in lieu of the latest creative endeavor on the actor and producer’s plate.
NCIS’ Mark Harmon: 10 TV Shows And Movies You Probably Forgot He Was In
As revealed in June 2023, Mark Harmon has been working on a new book that will peel back the curtain on the origin story of the Office of Naval Intelligence, which serves as the precursor to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Titled Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor, the new book will be published on November 14, 2023, with retired NCIS Special Agent Leon Carroll, Jr. co-authoring. And it sounds like the Summer School vet’s focus on writing and digging into NCIS history is taking up the energy and interest he might have otherwise put into getting back on TV.
It’s said that his attitude about returning has turned “fickle,” and that flip-flopping approach reportedly hasn’t been taken well by his former co-stars who are holding out expectations for Harmon’s resurgence as Gibbs. The hope would apparently be for the actor to help bring NCIS’ ratings back up to where they were in years before his Alaskan exit, even though numbers all across the TV spectrum have been dipping year over year.
If Harmon exuded a general lack of interest around donning his Gibbs persona anew for later seasons, that’d be one thing. But it’s alleged that his prior investment regarding an NCIS return has morphed into a passion solely for the book he’s writing. Here’s one one insider source put it:
When he was bored, an NCIS return sounded like a good idea. Now he's found something that's interesting, he's less enthused.
To be fair, it’s not difficult to understand why the book would require a huge chunk of Mark Harmon’s focus, and that he probably wouldn’t want to share his time between the two. Ghosts of Honolulu is the kind of project that wouldn’t have been a possibility whenever the drama was starting up at CBS, due to the lack of widespread information. The show’s success over the past two decades, however, has sparked awareness, curiosity, and a lot more research into that point in the organization’s history. Maybe when that creative bug has been sated by the time the book is published, he’ll be more into the idea of acting again.
That said, even if Harmon was 100% confirmed to return as Gibbs, it’s unclear when new episodes will be able to start coming together. The WGA writers strike, combined with the SAG-AFTRA strike, makes it all but impossible for new episodes to be crafted, so viewers will probably be waiting until at least January, if not later, to see what Gibbs references will be made in Season 21.
Until then, all seasons of NCIS can be streamed in full with a Paramount+ subscription, though it’s unclear when fans will be able to watch new episodes.
