How Origins Got Mark Harmon On Board For His Big Return To NCIS

The 2025 TV schedule is playing host to something pretty special, and that’s a crossover event between NCIS and NCIS: Origins. It was previously announced that the two shows would be coming together via a decades-spanning case that both series’ teams work in in their respective time periods. At this point, not too much else was shared, but CBS just announced that Mark Harmon is returning as Jethro Gibbs for the Origins hour. But how exactly did they manage to reel Harmon back in?

I’m not sure just how many NCIS fans expected Harmon to reprise his famous character, during which he’ll appear in the Origins hour of the crossover that airs on Veterans Day. In a press release, Harmon recalled how showrunners and executive producers David J. North and Gina Lucita Monreal approached him about coming back