When NCIS: Origins premieres this October, fans will meet a version of Leroy Jethro Gibbs they’ve never seen before. This is the version that Gibbs from NCIS has remained reticent about, trying to forget his traumatic past and move on. The show follows a young Gibbs as he joins NIS Camp Pendleton, while reeling from losing his wife and daughter. Naturally, there are some significant differences between the Gibbs from the flagship series and the younger version. Austin Stowell plays the young Gibbs, and he talked to Entertainment Weekly about what viewers can expect to be different about his portrayal of Gibbs. He talked about Gibbs’ current stature in life, saying,
“The Gibbs that we find in our show — it’s not the guy that the fans are used to. This is someone who’s going through a lot of pain, going through a time in his life where he doesn’t even know if he wants to stick around, quite honestly. He suffered a tremendous tragedy just four months before we pick up this show and there’s a lot of newness in his life. There’s lots of firsts going on right now.”
How ‘NCIS: Origins’ Differs from ‘NCIS.’
NCIS revealed in Season 1, Episode 3 that Gibbs’ wife Shannon and daughter Kelly were murdered before the show when the show picked up. The pain in Gibbs’ eyes was visible, but in NCIS: Origins, the loss is still fresh, and, as a result, the show will be darker. “I think this is totally fair to say that our show is a bit darker, a bit more introspective, than the Mothership. It’s a more raw look at these characters. Gets much more personal,” said Stowell, describing how different the shows feel. Gibbs will also be less confident and commanding because he’s not gained the necessary experience in addition to what he’s currently dealing with.
NCIS: Origins is still a procedural with weekly cases and a season-long arc. However, the prequel will feel different because of the period. The team doesn’t have the luxury of technology present in the current show since theirs is set in the 90s. Executive producer David J. North previewed this problem and how the team navigates it, saying,
“A show like this, you’re so used to going down to, say, Abby’s lab or Kasie’s lab, seeing her fingers dance on a keyboard and pull up DNA, and you find your suspect. We don’t have any of that. That’s really solved by investigation skills and thinking things through. We’re using the emotion of the characters to really reveal who our characters are in the process of working these whodunnit cases.”
NCIS: Origins premieres on CBS on October 15 after the Season 22 premiere of NCIS. Stay with Collider for the latest updates on the NCIS franchise.