CBS mega military franchise looking back at Gibbs’ early days with ‘NCIS: Origins’

NCIS is pulling a Young Sheldon.

Mark Harmon‘s Gibbs may have left CBS’ franchise mothership NCIS back in the show’s 19th season, but the character will be back, with Harmon as executive producer, for a prequel series.

On Friday the network announced NCIS: Origins has been given the green light for the 2024-25 season, and it will center on the younger version of character originated by Harmon, who will also serve as narrator.

Sean Harmon, Mark’s son who has played the young Gibbs in flashbacks throughout the flagship series’ run, reprises as the newbie investigator.

Set in 1991, the new show “follows a young Leroy Jethro Gibbs … 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,” the network explains.

Sean Harmon, also an executive producer on the project, said in the announcement, “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.” He added he is “thrilled” to “reveal a new side of this beloved character.”

Calling the NCIS franchise a “cultural and global phenomenon,” CBS Studios President David Stapf explains, “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.”