‘NCIS’ Fans, Mark Harmon Speaks Out About Returning to the Show

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Is Leroy Jethro Gibbs set to return to NCIS? Based on Mark Harmon's shocking surprise, there might be hope.

Fans of the hit CBS drama know the longtime actor exited the show in October 2021 after portraying the Supervisory Special Agent over the course of 19 seasons. At the time, fans couldn't stop begging for Mark's return, which he did in some capacity as one of NCIS'executive producers.

But when speaking to Entertainment Tonight about his new book Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy Hunter and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor, host Kevin Frazier asked him point-blank about whether fans will see Gibbs again.

"You probably know more than I do, Kevin," he said. "They left him there in a stream fishing, and that made sense to me — Is he going to get out of the stream? I don’t know. But if he is, I don’t know about it."

Well, that's not a no, so we'll take it.

He also revealed that he almost didn't play the part at all. As he further explained to the outlet, he wasn't enthused on being a part of NCIS at the time, and it took a very specific thing to convince him of taking the role.

"I read 'Leroy Jethro Gibbs' and thought, 'Wow, I like that name,'" he added. "Then, for a brief second, when I decided that I liked the idea of the project, the name changed... Bob Johnson, or something like that. I went, 'No, no, it’s gotta be Leroy Jethro Gibbs.' [Co-creator Donald P. Bellisario] said, 'No, you can’t play a guy named Leroy Jethro Gibbs,' and I said, 'Why not?' And then it went back, and I was happy about it."

Although there isn't a clear answer on Mark's potential return to the show, he's not the only actor people hope to see back on NCIS soon.

Back in November, his co-star Michael Weatherly stirred up talking among fans after he posted a photo on X (formerly known as Twitter) dressed similarly to his former role of Anthony "Tony" DiNozzo, who he played for 13 seasons on the drama. This also comes just a few months after longtime actor David McCallum (who played Donald "Ducky" Mallard" died in late September at the age of 90 from natural causes.

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