A brand new promotional photo for NCIS: Origins officially introduces Austin Stowell as the new Leroy Jethro Gibbs as Mark Harmon douses hopes of his return. The CBS police procedural franchise will once again expand, but this time, doing so will require looking back to its past with its very first prequel. The upcoming ’90s-set NCIS: Origins will tackle the earliest years of Gibbs in the agency as part of Mike Franks’ team based in Camp Pendleton before he gets his team and transferred to the DMV. NCIS: Origins, however, will introduce a new actor to play the fan-favorite character.
Taking it to his official Instagram account, Stowell shares the first proper look at himself as young Leroy Jethro Gibbs in NCIS: Origins.
In the aforementioned NCIS: Origins promotional video, Stowell sports the short hairdo that Gibbs has long been known for. He is also wearing his signature shirt with a white T-shirt underneath. The new reveal comes on the heels of Harmon squashing theories that he will appear as old Gibbs in NCIS: Origins.
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NCIS: Origins’ Gibbs Will Come From The Worst Tragedy Of His Life
Harmon played the contemporary version of the character in NCIS, but his son, Sean Harmon, portrayed the role for the majority of the flashback scenes. So technically, Stowell is a recast for young Gibbs in NCIS: Origins. Considering how beloved the Harmons are for playing the character, there was initial skepticism about whether the new actor can do the role properly. It didn’t help that when CBS released the first promotional image for NCIS: Origins, Stowell was styled incorrectly as the new Gibbs. Looking at this new video, the network has already been able to fix many of those issues.
While Gibbs maintained the same look throughout his stint on TV, expect that Stowell’s version will have differences from Harmon’s version. For starters, the events of NCIS: Origins take place on the heels of Kelly and Shannon Gibbs’ murder. Arguably Gibbs’ darkest plot from the main NCIS series, the tragedy prompted him to take things into his own hands and seek revenge. Still reeling from his biggest loss, Stowell’s Gibbs may be more emotional than his older counterpart. It’s also worth noting that this new version is new to the job, so he will still be prone to making mistakes.
While the flagship series tackled so many of Gibbs’ notable experiences from the past, NCIS: Origins has the opportunity to show what it’s really like for him before becoming the Major Case Response Team’s leader. His relationship with Kyle Schmid’s Mike Franks will be vital to the show’s success, and it is expected that the prequel will lean on it. Beyond that, however, the new show can also reveal new information about Gibbs that was never brought up in NCIS before.