When NCIS: Origins season 3 starts airing this fall, viewers will be reunited with one of the procedural franchise’s most popular characters.
From 2003 until his death in 2023, David McCallum starred as Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard in NCIS, being one of the show’s first five original characters. Additionally, Adam Campbell appeared as the younger Ducky in several episodes of the NCIS franchise‘s flagship series, then reprised the role for two episodes of NCIS: Origins season 2. Now, it’s been officially revealed that Campbell will be back for season 3.
Origins showrunner David J. North confirmed Campbell’s return to TVLine after Mariel Molino, who plays Lala Dominguez on the NCIS prequel, posted an Instagram Reel of the actor on set. North told the outlet that he’s “really excited” about Campbell reprising the medical examiner, adding that the character’s presence in NCIS: Origins season 3 further explores how he and Austin Stowell’s Leroy Jethro Gibbs became close friends. As for what specifically brings Ducky back to Camp Pendleton in the early 1990s, the showrunner said:
Let’s just say he comes into a case this year in a way that he hasn’t in his previous two episodes … he sort of just ends up popping up.
Campbell made his NCIS: Origins debut in “The Edge,” which saw Ducky traveling to the Camp Pendleton branch of NCIS (still known at the time as NIS) to determine whether it needed an in-house medical examiner. This marked Campbell’s first time working with Stowell, as the young Gibbs was previously played by Sean Harmon in the NCIS season 18 episode “Everything Starts Somewhere,” which chronicled Gibbs and Ducky meeting for the first time. Ducky then returned in “Homeward Bound” to help out his friend Dr. Tango, the San Diego County medical examiner who works with NCIS.
Along with his two NCIS: Origins appearances, Campbell also recently reprised Ducky in the NCIS season 23 episode “All Good Things.” However, rather than the young Ducky appearing in flashbacks, he instead appeared as a spirit that Rocky Carroll’s Leon Vance encountered in the afterlife. Initially disguising himself as an unnamed investigator, played by Adhir Kalyan, Campbell’s Ducky helped Vance remember the events that led to him being fatally shot.
NCIS: Origins season 2 ended with Gibbs and Lala finally kissing, as well as Randy being kidnapped by unknown assailants because of his work digitizing the NCIS case files. Besides season 3 being expected to follow up on those plot threads, it has been announced that Mark Harmon will reprise the older Gibbs in all its episodes. Harmon previously appeared on camera as Gibbs in Origins‘ pilot and the season 2 episode “Funny How Time Slips Away,” and also executive produces and narrates the series.
NCIS: Origins season 3 premieres Tuesday, October 6 at 10 p.m. ET on CBS. It will comprise only 10 episodes, an eight-episode decrease from what both seasons 1 and 2 received. NCIS season 24 and NCIS: New York season 1 will also both air Tuesday nights in the fall.
- Release Date
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October 14, 2024
- Directors
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Niels Arden Oplev, John Terlesky, Diana Valentine, Edward Ornelas, Hanelle M. Culpepper, Lionel Coleman, Loren Yaconelli, Pete Chatmon, Pamela Romanowsky, Ruben Garcia, Jessica Lowrey
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Austin Stowell
Leroy Jethro Gibbs
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Kyle Schmid
Special Agent Mike Franks
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
