Warning: SPOILERS for the NCIS: Origins season 3 premiere are ahead!NCIS: Origins’ showrunner has set the record on the show’s future beyond season 3 following a surprise comment from Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
In the NCIS: Origins season 3 premiere, Mark Harmon’s older Gibbs, fresh from being shot by unknown assailants, embarked on a journey that he described as the final chapter of the story he’s been telling about Mariel Molino’s Cecilia “Lala” Dominguez. However, that doesn’t mean that the prequel series will conclude with season 3. Origins showrunner David J. North clarified that the CBS procedural is meant to keep going after that.
In an interview with The Wrap, North described NCIS: Origins season 3 as the “next evolution” for the show. He explained that viewers will learn “a lot more” about this story that Gibbs has been telling, as well as about Lala herself and “what’s happened and why we never heard about her.” Describing Origins season 3 as “really just the beginning,” North continued:
I will tell the “NCIS” fans that they are not going to be disappointed this year. Gibbs in 2026 has perhaps the biggest mission of his life, and he is not going to be alone. He has his people that adore him and are loyal to him, and they’re going to be there. He’s been there for them always, and they’re going to be there for him.
NCIS: Origins season 3’s first episode opened with Harmon’s Gibbs in Alaska, where he’s been ever since Harmon exited NCIS early in season 19. Unfortunately for him, his peaceful life was interrupted by the aforementioned shooters, though he survived the assassination attempt by using a “party trick” breathing technique to fool one of the shooters when they went to check his pulse. After patching up his wound and copying the thumbprint left behind on his neck, Gibbs left his Alaskan home with his dog to figure out who’s targeting him and why.
Meanwhile, in 1992, Austin Stowell’s younger Gibbs and Lala came close to having sex after kissing in the NCIS: Origins season 2 finale, only to be interrupted by Mike Franks calling Lala to share the first details of this episode’s case. The season 3 premiere’s central murder ended up being connected to Randy’s kidnapping, with former NIS Regional Director Roland Barrett ultimately revealed as being behind both that and the murder. By the end of “Don’t You Forget About Me,” Lala asked Gibbs to wait for them to potentially start a romantic relationship while she collected herself.
While CBS hasn’t officially indicated if NCIS: Origins season 4 will happen, North’s new comments make it clear that season 3 is meant to set the stage for a new era in the prequel. Harmon will appear in all Origins season 3 episodes, along with continuing his narrator and executive producer duties. Season 3 will also see Adam Campbell reprising the young Ducky Mallard following his two season 2 appearances, and Sean Harmon, who played young Gibbs in several NCIS episodes, has been cast as a new character named FBI Agent Casey Bloom.
NCIS: Origins airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS’s fall 2026 TV schedule.
- 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
