Get ready, NCIS fans — Mark Harmon is coming back to the franchise.
“This almost, to me, came off [my voiceover work] in a way,” Harmon told TV Insider of his upcoming appearances in NCIS: ORIGINS.
The actor has provided voiceovers for the series, but now, he is set to appear in all 10 episodes of the upcoming third season.
“We just really felt like it was time,” showrunner David J. North said of Harmon’s return. “You always want to bring Mark Harmon back to television.”
Plot details are being kept under wraps, but Mariel Molino (Agent Cecilia “Lala” Dominguez) teased that the story connects back to Gibbs’ Camp Pendleton days, with Randy’s kidnapping as the “genesis.”
Related: Mark Harmon’s NCIS: ORIGINS Return Comes Into Focus in First-Look Photos
North made similar comments to Deadline, saying, “When we first see Gibbs in the [ORIGINS] season premiere, he is still in Alaska with his trusted rescue dog but soon finds that the peace he found there isn’t going to be easy to hold on to. Ghosts from his past are catching up to him, and it may be enough to pull him out of retirement. Over the course of the season, we’ll discover that what’s happening in present day is directly tied to events that occurred during his ‘90s Camp Pendleton days.”
“Did I think I would be doing this a number of years ago when we went in to try to sell this? No, I didn’t,” Harmon admitted. “That was not in the plan. But to be there, and I think the character stuff that I’ve seen so far is challenging and good… I like these individuals. And I also like how David has worked that through line through what is basically a period piece. I’m enjoying being back.”
North said having Harmon back on set was “surreal, incredible, hard to put into words.”
“It was like coming home,” he continued. “Mark is amazing in those scenes. The fans are going to lose their minds.”
This isn’t the first time Harmon has appeared onscreen in ORIGINS. He reprised the role of Gibbs in a special ORIGINS crossover with NCIS in 2025.
“It’s comfortable,” he told TV Insider last year about the appearance. “I mean, the sets are comfortable. They’re comfortable. I know who they are. You have a big backlog of time together with people and they’re special. That’s what 20 years in the saddle does — it gives you a comfort that is somewhat rare. I don’t know that that’s on every set I’ve ever been on. And it is also important that the crew and all those people are people.”
The third season of NCIS: ORIGINS premieres Oct. 6 on CBS.
