‘NCIS’: Sean Murray Talks Prequel ‘Origins’ & Filming Final Scene With Mark Harmon
The world of NCIS keeps growing, with two shows currently airing new seasons (the mothership and Hawai’i), one already set to return for another (Sydney), and two more ordered to series for some time in 2024-2025. One of those new ones is NCIS: Origins, a prequel story about Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ early years, picking up in 1991. (The other is a spinoff about Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo’s characters.) Mark Harmon serves as narrator and executive producer , and Austin Stowell will play the young version of the character he starred in for 19 seasons on NCIS.
“I was aware of it before it got going. I knew about the initial ideas of it and stuff, but NCIS: Origins sounds to me something that could be very, very cool,” NCIS star Sean Murray (who has played Timothy McGee since Season 1) told TV Insider. “I mean, Gibbs in the early days of NIS and back when it was called NIS and not NCIS, I think that will be really interesting and I’m looking forward to seeing it.”
He continued, “I’ve talked to Mark a little bit about it, and I know he’s excited about it. I’m sure the quality control on that one is going to be—I think they’re going to hold on to that one pretty good. I think it’s going to be done really well. I really do.”
One of the most shocking moments of NCIS came when Harmon exited in the 19th season, with Gibbs staying behind in Alaska in the fourth episode. Gibbs’ farewell to McGee, whom he’d watched grow from probie to senior field agent. “You’re getting there. You just gotta find your rhythm,” Gibbs told him, referring to more than the fishing they were doing. “Be patient. It’s about progress, not perfection. Once you know the basics, the rest just comes from within.”
For Murray, “that’s one of my favorite scenes I’ve done, the goodbye with Mark. As hard as that was, at the same time my character said goodbye to Mark, we had an incredible time.”
They did film that in Alaska. “We actually went and did the real fly fishing in Alaska, and it was amazing. And actually doing that sequence is one of my best memories of this show,” he shares. “Also, when we were out in that water filming, knee-deep, fly fishing, we got a steady cam operator out there, and at one point, we’re doing the scene where we’re basically saying goodbye to each other. And I looked around, all of our crew was crying, so I felt like we were doing something right.”
