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SPOILER ALERT! This story contains details from the two-part premiere of NCIS: Origins on CBS.
The origin story of Leroy Jethro Gibbs has finally begun: CBS kicked off its much-anticipated prequel Monday from veteran NCIS writers-producers Gina Lucita Monreal and David J. North, as well as CBS Studios. And as promised, Mark Harmon returned to both narrate and to appear fireside as he journals about his life.
Here, Monreal and North breakdown the two-part premiere that follows a young Gibbs (Bridge of Spies‘ Austin Stowell) as he starts his career as a newly minted special agent at the fledgling NIS Camp Pendleton office.
DEADLINE How much does the average viewer of NCIS know about Leroy Gibbs?
GINA LUCITA MONREAL I think it varies, but our hardcore fans know a lot. We’re trying to strike a balance between those hardcore fans and hopefully new fans who know nothing. That’s the line we’re walking.
DEADLINE Do they know he failed his psych evaluation?
DAVID J. NORTH No, we just made that up. We’re making this shit up.
DEADLINE That’s what a writer should do. Did they meet his dad?
NORTH They did meet his dad on the OG show. His dad was played by the wonderful Ralph Waite, who passed away during the length of that series. So we have Robert Taylor playing the younger version of him.
DEADLINE Did you shoot at Pendleton?
NORTH We did not. We spoke about it at one point. We did go down there. Gina and I took our writing staff and went with the director of the two-hour premiere to make sure this was as realistic as possible. We shot in San Pedro to match Pendleton.
DEADLINE Why is it just NIS?
MONREAL Before it became NCIS, it was NIS. There was a restructuring that happened in 1992 and that’s when they changed the name. So it helps us really, even in just saying this is a different time and place. We’ll play that restructuring within the scope of our show.
DEADLINE So why is Mike Franks [played by Kyle Schmid] considered a legend and how did he end up here? He obviously doesn’t fit the classic mold of these investigators.
MONREAL That’s a good question we’re going to answer.
NORTH We know him to be a gifted mentor. We know that he was a bit of a rule breaker. I don’t know how many episodes Frank was played by Muse Watson in NCIS, but it seemed like there was a lot untapped there. It was exciting for Gina and I because we felt we could take that character, who the hardcore fan base know, dig a little deeper and figure out what would’ve made this guy tick in 1991. The younger version in our show is very different than the older retired guy in the original. Frank is blunt, he says it like it is. There’s a little bit of Archie Bunker to him, but he is someone who has a lot of empathy for the people around him, even though he doesn’t always show it.
MONREAL I would describe him as complex because he does do some misogynistic things, but then he also has another side to him as well.
DEADLINE So we see Mark Harmon’s Leroy Gibbs journaling in the premiere! Did we know he journaled?
MONREAL Well, we knew that he brought a journal to Alaska.
NORTH In writing Mark’s final episode of NCIS, Gibbs goes to Alaska and when he gets there, he’s searching for someone. He decides that he has found peace there. When writing that episode, we didn’t really know what Gibbs would take with him when he knew he was never coming back. One of the things was a journal because he’s going to be in solitude. That worked out very well for us here at Origins.
MONREAL David actually wrote that farewell episode for Gibbs on the original NCIS and did such a beautiful job ending that story. So it’s really fun to see him be able to continue that story with our new show.
DEADLINE When we hear from Gibb’s dad in the premiere, he says to his son, ‘you’re not built for this job.’ What did he mean by that?
NORTH Gibbs joined the Marines at 18 and was a sniper his entire life. He was defending his country by hunting the enemy. He was a killer. That’s how Jackson sees his son as, sadly. He did not see him as someone who has the patience to do these investigations. I think any father/son relationship is complex and fathers don’t always see everything that’s there with your son. That’s a really tough moment.
MONREAL Jackson, too, is a military man. We’ve established in the original show that he flew planes in the army and the war. So I think it is really ingrained in who this family is, being in the military. So for him to see Gibbs make this shift sort of unannounced, is jarring for Jackson.
DEADLINE When Gibbs said the phrase ‘old habits,’ it literally sounded like Mark Harmon. You didn’t have Mark do a voiceover, did you?
MONREAL Austin does say it. He has done a lot of research into the way that Mark played this character and he’s really incorporated so many of his mannerism and his speaking patterns. I think his research and his dedication to this role is really evident.
DEADLINE Are you going to try to match the exact tone of NCIS or do you want this to be a little more serious?
NORTH We definitely will find the humor, but the tone of this show is largely darker. It is edgier. We are dealing with some stories that maybe we wouldn’t have had in the original NCIS, but we’re finding that even in the darkest moments of loss and grief, humor always bubbles to the surface.
DEADLINE Will there be a serialized aspect to this?
NORTH It is largely serialized. We have cases each week, but the show really delves deep into character so it’s a very serialized show.
DEADLINE Is Mark super precious about this character or is he giving you a wide berth?
NORTH Both. He cares so much, but it is a really interesting thing. He is Gibbs and obviously Mark infused so much of himself into Gibbs over the years. But he really trusts me and Gina. He wants us to see our vision through.
DEADLINE How would you describe the NCIS fans? Are they going to keep you on your toes or do you think they’ll cut you a break?
MONREAL Oh, they won’t cut us a break and I don’t want them to, either. That’s what makes them so wonderful is they’re so invested and they don’t want us to get this wrong and we certainly don’t want to get this wrong. We love and respect our fans and we want to do this justice for them. We’re so excited for them to see it.
DEADLINE What differences will we see in the way this team investigates cases as opposed to the way the modern-day team operates?
NORTH Forensics takes a long time. Even fingerprints can take six months to run. So it’s much more of a down and dirty, conventional, old-school way of investigating, which from a writer’s perspective is wonderful. It can be challenging in that you don’t have those crutches of just saying, ‘oh, okay, well we will run through fingerprint analysis and find our guy.’ It makes us go back and look at the characters and use our agents and their skillsets in order to solve these cases.
DEADLINE Will we see Mark sitting fireside again, writing in his journal? Or will you put him someplace else?
NORTH Anything is possible. We don’t want to give away too much of what’s going to happen and a lot is still being figured out. Our show focuses on 1991 and these characters, this rich tapestry that we have going with these characters, but certainly anything is possible.
DEADLINE Young Gibbs is a handsome man. Can you see him considering a romance or is that just not in the cards for a while because he’s still so damaged?
NORTH I think you said it. This is a human being and he has suffered a lot of loss, but romance is certainly not out of the question.
