If you're an NCIS fan like me, you were pretty devastated when Gibbs (Mark Harmon) left the show. Of course, it makes sense - he'd been leading the show for years!
His origins as Gibbs go all the way back to 2003, where he played the troubled detective in a few episodes of JAG. And it was nothing but success since that point - 18 seasons later, and I bet Harmon was feeling tired.
But Gibbs the character ended up coming back to the limelight in the spinoff NCIS: Origins. But that was only for a special episode in season 2.
The showrunners for the show, David J. North and Gina Lucita Monreal, explained to Entertainment Weekly that they had to convince Harmon, who's an executive producer for NCIS: Origins, to show up for an episode during a crossover between NCIS and the spinoff.
"In the end, Gina and I just went [to] him and said how important we think this episode is... how different it is that the network's never done anything like it, doing a crossover using time. And Mark said, 'okay, let's roll,'", North explained.
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How Is the 'NCIS' Gibbs Comeback Going to Work?
Well, it looks like it's going to be a doozy.
A press release detailed Mark Harmon's return to the franchise as an actor. And it's not going to be a one-off - he's there the whole season!
It explains he will appear in a "present-day mystery tied to his '90s Camp Pendleton days in an action-packed story that unfolds all season long," according to Entertainment Weekly.
And while the when of what's happening with NCIS: Origins isn't 100% clear, we have a rough idea. Season 2 wrapped up on May 5 with an action-packed finale. And we know that it's looking to start back up around fall time, according to TV Insider. But things aren't exactly concrete at the moment.
We know it'll be 10 episodes long (10 episodes of Mark Harmon as Gibbs, anyone?), which comes as a bit of a shorter offering compared to its previous 2 seasons. They were each 18 episodes long.
In any case, we're happy to see this happening!
