TV fanatics are familiar with hearing news of a popular TV show getting a spinoff. In the NCIS universe, it happens quite often. But NCIS: Origins is something different.
This NCIS: Origins cast and character guide will introduce all the new NIS agents and crucial team members present during Gibbs’s career start.
The show is starting with a full crew and a new location. While Gibbs is returning, he’ll be decades younger and a greenhorn rookie starting out with his NCIS career. We’re finally going to see what made Gibbs, well, Gibbs.
NCIS: Origins Cast and Character Guide
As another NCIS spinoff that takes us back to where it all began, NCIS: Origins will feature new characters who created the Gibbs we all know and love.
We’ll go back to the start before there were cell phones to track and computers to give you instant information with a few clicks of the mouse.
Check out the faces we’ll get to know as significant people to Rookie NCIS Agent Leroy “Jethro” Gibbs.
NIS Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs – Austin Stowell
We’ve grown to adore the mature and experienced retired NCIS Agent Gibbs, played by Mark Harmon, for nearly twenty years.
But Origins will give us a young and impressionable Jethro, Austin Stowell, at the start of his career at a small NCIS office in 1991. Harmon will narrate the series of his life, but he won’t appear in front of the camera.
We’ll see Gibbs as a baby-faced rookie at the Camp Pendleton NIS office, where he’s the new guy on the team under mentor and future best friend Mike Franks.
He’ll be in the throes of mental trauma, freshly returned from Desert Storm and the losses of his wife and young daughter as he finds his place with NIS after leaving the military.
Stowell scored his first recurring role in The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Since then, he’s been in several prominent movies, including Behaving Badly, Dolphin Tale 1 & 2, 12 Strong, and The Hating Game.
NIS Agent Mike Franks – Kyle Schmid
In the original NCIS series, Texan Mike Franks — Muse Watson — is Gibbs’ sounding board and best friend.
In NCIS: Origins, Gibbs is just meeting Franks, his superior, and they’ve yet to create a strong bond of friendship.
Kyle Schmid will play a younger Franks as he, his perfect mustache, cowboy boots, and a team of ragtag NIS agents grow their small NCIS branch and make big names for themselves.
Franks was already a legend in the NIS world before becoming the leader of a diverse team of young agents who would make NCIS a formidable agency.
Schmid is known for several series, including Copper, SIX, Blood Ties, and Being Human. He’s also appeared in movies like The Pacifier with Max Thieriot (Fire Country), The Cheetah Girls, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The Covenant, and Seeing Red.
Special Agent Vera Strickland – Diany Rodriguez
NCIS fans have met the modern-day Vera throughout Gibbs’ career, and we’ll go back to the beginning with Origins.
Special Agent Vera Strickland is a tough, sharp-minded agent from Brooklyn with a chip on her shoulder and a willingness to say it how it is, feelings be damned.
Her entire career has involved dealing with misogynistic sexists who underestimate her abilities due to her gender. But she’s more than willing to give them a fight when they come looking.
You might recognize her from The Suicide Squad, The Blacklist, and Twisted Metal.
She has scored single appearance episodes on shows like The Equalizer, FBI: Most Wanted, New Amsterdam, and Law & Order: Organized Crime.
Special Agent Granville Dawson – Daniel Bellomy
Another official member of the NIS team led by Franks and supervised by Walker is Special Agent Granville Dawson, nicknamed Granny or Probie (short for probationary officer).
We’ll see Dawson at the start of his career, working as an assistant to the Evidence Custodian and eager to move up to field agent and join Mike’s team.
Like Dawson, Daniel Bellomy is at the start of his career, with small roles in pieces like Freak Show, Suits, Blue Bloods, The Good Fight, FBI International, and his only repeat role in Power Book II: Ghost for four years.
SA Benjamin Randolf, aka Randy, will be the NIS agency’s golden boy. It will be hard not to love and respect the father of twins, which he uses to his advantage.
He’ll teach a young Gibbs the ins and outs of being a federal agent as the soldier adjusts to his new life.
Foote has been seen on shows like Grey’s Anatomy, American Horror Story, American Crime Story, NCIS: Los Angeles, and Magnum P.I. He’s scored recurring roles on The Kids are Alright and Made for Love.
Special Agent Lala Dominguez – Mariel Molino
Agent Lala Dominguez is a fellow former Marine, giving Gibbs a kindred spirit in the NIS.
Her dark sense of humor and sharp skills will be useful during her investigative work.
Molino appeared in 98 episodes of the foreign TV series Papis Muy Padres, 12 episodes of La Negociadora, and landed recurring roles in Promised Land and The Watchful Eye.
Field Operation Support Officer Mary Jo – Tyla Abercrumbie
Mary Jo is the NIS Field Operation Support Officer, although she refers to herself as the HSIC – Head Secretary in Charge.
Tyla Abercrumbie will be the glue that keeps the NIS Camp Pendleton office running smoothly among its many cases, acting as a protective mother bear to everyone in her orbit.
She’s also the know-all lady who keeps everyone’s secrets and protects the details of everything that happens in her lair.
Abercrumbie has been in The Poker House, Empire, Chicago Med, Proven Innocent, Chicago PD, and a recurring role for The Chi.
Chief Medical Examiner Kai Blackrock – Julian Black Antelope
Assisting the team with its deceased bodies will be Chief Medical Examiner Kai Blackrock from the San Diego County ME’s Office.
While Blackrock is at the peak of his career, he retains emotional connections that keep him in the folds of official investigations and force him to face his inner demons.
We’ve seen Black Antelope in previous works like The Flash, Grendel, and a Hulu original film, Prey, where he was the leader, Chief Kehetu, of a band of Comanches.
Later in 2024, he will take on a second recurring role in another Hulu production, the series Washington Black.
Assistant Medical Examiner Dr. Lenora Friedman – Lori Petty
Positioned to be the next Duckey and Palmer, Blackrock will handle his cases with NIS with the help of an assistant, Dr. Lenora Friedman.
Actress Lori Petty has been around since the ’80s, with her most notable roles in Tank Girl and Orange is the New Black.
But she’s also played opposite ’90s comedian Pauley Shore in In the Army Now and Genna Davis in A League of Their Own.
NIS Agent in Charge Cliff Walker – Patrick Fischler
While the original NCIS team had Director Vance to play politics and clear the way for the agents to do their jobs, Franks and his NIS team had Agent in Charge Cliff Walker.
Walker believes in his team and agency despite being largely unknown among law enforcement agencies.
We’ll see him frequently put his career on the line to get a foot in the door with bigger agencies and grow NIS Pendleton’s reputation.
Fischler has an impressive filmography of movies and series during his career. He’s been in recurring series like Nash Bridges, Lost, Once Upon a Time, and Twin Peaks.
He’s also been in many movies and dozens of series on a single-episode basis. You’ll know the face, even if you don’t recognize his name.
Lead Forensic Analyst Woody Browne – Bobby Moynihan
Lead analyst Woody Browne will take on the NIS team’s forensics, which will look completely different from the lab analysis we’re used to seeing on NCIS.
Moynihan has been everywhere in his extensive career, including animated films like Inside Out 2, IF, and Summer Camp Island.
He was also a Saturday Night Live regular from 2008 to 2017.
Jackson Gibbs – Robert Taylor
We’ve seen Gibbs with his father several times in the NCIS series, played by actor Ralph Waite, most famously known for his role in The Waltons series as John Senior.
In the NCIS: Origins series, we’ll see a younger Jackson Gibbs trying to help his son come to terms with all the cards life has dealt him.
Australian actor Robert Taylor, best known for his six seasons as Sheriff Longmire in the self-titled series, will take on the recurring role of the early Gibbs series.
Join NCIS: Origins to See It From the Start
Fans have loved being part of the Gibbs fan club for the nineteen seasons he starred on NCIS.
While we’ve been fascinated with the jaded grump he’s become, traveling back in time to see where it all started will be an interesting journey.
Hopefully, we’ll see how Gibbs got started with his infamous rules and head slaps. Knowing that we’re picking up so soon after all of his trauma gives this fan hope that we’ll see Gibbs in the throes of emotions as he tries to cope.
Check out the new video trailer (above) giving us a taste of what’s to come with a younger Gibbs as he joins the NIS agency.
And stop by our comments section and let us know your thoughts on the start of Gibbs’ story.
The new spinoff, NCIS: Origins will premiere as part of CBS’ Fall lineup in October, 2024.
We can’t wait.