By Mallory Mattingly
NCIS: ORIGINS has officially been renewed for Season 2, and many fans are wondering if Mark Harmon will return for the upcoming season.
Harmon narrated Season 1 as the voice of Gibbs, and showrunner David J. North knows how much that means to fans.
He told TV Insider that having Harmon narrate the prequel series is “absolutely the plan, and as long as Mark wants to do it.”
He continued, “I think he’s having a lot of fun with it. To give you a little behind the scenes, some of the most rewarding moments for me have been seeing Gina [Lucita Monreal] and Mark go off into the sound studio together, and they have a team there, but really Gina and Mark do this VO together and work on it together. For me to just kind of receive it then and go through it, it’s been really awesome.”
“I know I get feedback that a lot of times it’s Mark’s VO that brings people to tears, and I know just what his Gibbs voice means to the fan base. So yes, we, of course, want Mark to keep doing it,” North added.
Monreal shared, “We’re really fortunate to have his support through all of this. Getting that time with him when he’s recording is just such a gift. To see him watch the show and do his narration and get his side of it and see how he’s processing these stories, it’s just really helpful in the storytelling. So I’m so grateful for that time with him and that he gives us that time.”
The last time Harmon appeared in the NCISverse was during the series premiere of ORIGINS. As much as the fans want to see Harmon back on the screen, North is focused on telling the prequel story.
“Our focus is on 1992 and telling this prequel story, but we’re always open to any ideas,” he explained. “And if that’s where it feels like the narrative wants to take us, Mark’s all in on this show. When we went to him the first time, it wasn’t the plan for him to appear, but Gina and I called him and said, ‘Hey, we think this is the best way to tell the story.’ And he said, ‘Tell me where to go.’ So anything is possible. The fans could tune in any week and see Mark, I’ll say that. But right now we’re focusing on 1992.”
In ORIGINS, North tells the story of Gibbs right after the death of his wife and daughter. In Season 2, he plans to focus on how Gibbs became the stoic character NCIS fans know.
“We’re edging him toward that,” North confirmed in another interview with TV Insider. “Gina and I wrote obviously Mark Harmon’s Gibbs for years, and that’s the direction that we’re taking Austin’s Gibbs. Even from an investigative standpoint, we learned in this season that young Gibbs really had a gut feeling that maybe there was more to this Sandman story, the Bugs story, but he really didn’t follow up on it too much. He didn’t trust his gut, and in the end, he was right. So these are all learning experiences that are pushing young Gibbs toward the Gibbs that we’ve known for so long.”
NCIS: ORIGINS Season 1 finale aired on Tuesday night. The NCISverse Instagram page asked followers what they thought of the episode.
“Lala has to come back pleaseeeee,” one user wrote.
Related: Mark Harmon Returns to NCIS Universe in NCIS: ORIGINS
Another said, “Almost as painful as Kate.”
“It was so good. Had to pick my mouth up off the floor and cried at the ending,” another person commented.
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