Although Sean Harmon played a young Leroy Jethro Gibbs in a handful of NCIS episodes, it’s Austin Stowell who succeeded Mark Harmon in playing the character on a regular basis thanks to NCIS: Origins. The prequel series chronicles Gibbs’ first years working at what was then NIS, and not only is Season 2 still airing on the 2026 TV schedule, but Season 3 has also been officially greenlighted. So Stowell will continue playing the younger Gibbs for the foreseeable future, and he talked with CinemaBlend about how he doesn’t take this role for granted.
At the end of my recent interview with the actor that was tied to the episode where Gibbs met Shea Bucker’s Dwayne Pride (previously played by Scott Bakula on NCIS: New Orleans), I asked him if there was an aspect of playing Gibbs that he appreciates now, but didn’t necessarily jump out to him when he was first cast on NCIS: Origins. Austin Stowell started off by telling me about how there was someone in his personal life who died and “wasn't able to see the lessons from life,” and that he thinks about his person when playing Gibbs. Then he said:
