‘NCIS’ Prequel Focused on Younger Gibbs a Go at CBS

CBS, which is saying goodbye to Young Sheldon this season, will say hello to young Leroy Jethro next season.

The network is expanding the NCIS franchise with a prequel titled NCIS: Origins, which has a straight-to-series order for the 2024-25 season. The 1990s-set drama will follow a younger Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Mark Harmon’s longtime character in the original series. Harmon is an executive producer on the prequel and will also narrate the series.

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NCIS: Origins will open in 1991 and will follow the young Gibbs as a newly installed agent at the Camp Pendleton NCIS office, which is led by the legendary Mike Franks — a recurring character in the original series (played by Muse Watson). (The NCIS flagship premiered in 2003, when Harmon was 51; CBS’ description of Origins reads as though the character may be younger than 40ish in the prequel.)

“We are elated and honored to continue the expansion of the NCIS universe in such a unique and unexpected way,” said CBS Entertainment president Amy Reisenbach. “Viewers can look forward to Mark Harmon returning to CBS to narrate the complex and mysterious backstory of Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ early years in NCIS: Origins, which will build on the rich legacy of this character while reintroducing fan-favorite characters and meeting new ones.”

David J. North and Gina Lucita Monreal, both veterans of the NCIS franchise, will serve as co-showrunners on Origins. They executive produce with Harmon and his son, Sean Harmon — who himself has played a younger version of Gibbs on several episodes of NCIS. Like the other shows in the franchise, Origins comes from CBS Studios.

“There’s no denying the cultural and global phenomenon of the NCIS franchise for the last 20 years,” CBS Studios president David Stapf said. “When Sean and Mark approached us all with this exciting expansion of the universe — exploring a young Gibbs — we knew it was the next story that needed to be told. We also couldn’t be luckier to have Gina and David at the helm as co-showrunners who are not only brilliant and adept writers, but know this character and universe so well.”

Said Sean Harmon, “The character of Gibbs has been an important part of my life for 20 years, both in watching my father craft the role and previously having the honor to play young Gibbs myself. I always felt there was a tale worth telling about his earlier years, so I am thrilled to be stepping into a producing role alongside Gina, David and my dad as we tell this story and reveal a new side of this beloved character.”

Origins will join the original NCIS and NCIS: Hawai’i on CBS. The franchise’s first international edition, NCIS: Sydney, premiered in late 2023 in its home country of Australia and has aired on CBS as well. The four domestic shows under the NCIS banner (also including the now-ended Los Angeles and New Orleans spinoffs) have produced nearly 1,000 episodes combined since launching as a spinoff of JAG in 2003.

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