Although there have been a few instances of NCIS: Origins tweaking NCIS canon, for the most part, the popular prequel series airing on the 2025 TV schedule has been faithfully adhering to the timeline established by the flagship series. So I was glad when it was reported last week that Origins was casting the young version of Dwayne Pride, Scott Bakula’s character from NCIS: New Orleans, as this is around the time he and Leroy Jethro Gibbs were working together. Now we know who will play the younger Pride, and I’m especially excited about what’s in store for his appearance.
Shea Buckner, who was most recently seen playing one of the five Caccimelio brothers in Only Murders in the Building Season 5 (which can be streamed with a Hulu subscription), has been tapped to play Dwayne Pride in the early ‘90s, per Deadline. As previously reported, Pride, a former Sheriff’s Deputy, is a Probationary Special Agent working out of the NIS Panama office at this point in the NCIS timeline. During his Origins episode, which will air sometime later in Season 2, will see him and Austin Stowell’s Gibbs resolving their past differences while going on an undercover operation together.
Buckner, who can be seen on the far left in the above Only Murders picture, has also made guest appearances on shows like The Equalizer, The Blacklist and FBI. Now he’ll get to take over playing one of the NCIS franchise’s more well-known figures, as Scott Bakula lead NCIS: New Orleans for the entirety of its seven-season run after being introduced in the NCIS Season 11 two-parter “Crescent City.” What’s even better is that Buckner’s Pride will be accompanied some other established characters who Gibbs and Mike Franks closely with during this era.
A few weeks after the NCIS: Origins Season 1 finale aired, Gina Lucita Monreal, who shares showrunning duties with David J. North, indicated that Season 2 would explore the Fed 5, i.e. the task force consisting of Gibbs, Pride, Mike Franks, Dan McLane and Felix Betts that hunted down the Privileged Killer and was active until 1994. Monreal told me earlier this month that Origins Season 2 would indeed touch on the Fed 5, “though not in the way that people might think.” Fast-forward to today, Deadline’s article also mentions that we’ll also see McLane and Betts in this Pride-focused episode.
Neither of these two, both in their 40s when we see them in NCIS: Origins, have been cast yet, but CBS has reportedly “been seeing actors for the last couple weeks.” McLane is described as “smart, authoritative, confident, with an old school masculine energy,” and he comes from the NIS Panama office like Dwayne Pride. Betts is described as a “ a buttoned-up, likable and exuberant auditor and ‘paper-trail genius’ from the Los Angeles NIS office.” We’ll see the Fed 5 being formed to stop a stolen weapons ring, with McLane leading the group and Betts using his “superpower” of “sifting through mountains of bureaucratic paperwork, finding patterns that help solve cases.”
You can stream “Crescent City” with your Paramount+ subscription to learn what becomes of Dan McLane and Felix Betts, but I’m glad that they’ll come into the picture at the same time we meet Shea’s Buckner’s Dwayne Pride. Right now, these three characters are only slated for the one episode, but depending on how long NCIS: Origins runs for, it’d be easy enough to bring them back. I would certainly welcome seeing what specifically happened when they tracked down and apprehended the Privileged Killer, even if it was later revealed that they got the wrong guy.
