Paramount Global Brings ‘NCIS: Origins’ To Cannes; Mark & Sean Harmon & Prequel Showrunners On Getting Grittier & Going Back To The Source — MIPCOM

Stewart Clarke

21 October 2024 at 2:17 am·3-min read

Paramount Global Content Distribution has landed in Cannes with a new NCIS for international buyers, NCIS: Origins. Ahead of the event, Deadline spoke to the team behind it: Mark Harmon, the original Leroy Jethro Gibbs and an exec producer on the new show, along with his son and fellow EP Sean Harmon, and co-showrunner/EPs David J. North and Gina Lucita Monreal.

NCIS as a franchise has launched shows set in Los Angeles, New Orleans, Hawaii and Sydney, Australia, and clocked up more than 1,000 episodes of network drama. Its latest variant, NCIS: Origins, provides something different and darker as the show goes back to the source.

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“The character of Gibbs has resonated with global audiences because he is a role model and at the same time someone you can relate to,” says Sean Harmon. “The world is used to seeing Gibbs as ‘the boss’, but in NCIS: Origins we are dealing with a much less tempered version of him. Fans can look forward to a more intimate look into what makes Gibbs tick, as well as meeting some of the characters who influenced him along the way.”

The prequel winds the clock back to 1991. It starts on Gibbs’ first day of work as a probationary agent, and flashbacks set up how he ended up at what was then called NIS. “He’s much more raw in a lot of ways, he’s more vocal than the Mark Harmon Gibbs we all watched for so many years,” says North.

The new recruit has endured a terrible personal tragedy months before the point where the series kicks off. “NCIS: Origins is just after the death of his wife and daughter,” says Mark Harmon. “He is the ‘newbie’ at NIS and learning every day under Special Agent Mike Franks. We will see him develop and grow into the man he becomes, and we will ride with the audience revealing that backstory and history.”

In the new show, Austin Stowell steps into Gibbs’ shoes. “Mark has told him to trust his process and his instincts and is available to him,” North says. “Austin has studied Mark and his mannerisms, but at the same time, it’s a different character and a different period in his life, and he’s brought so much of himself to it.”

North says NCIS fans are in for a surprise. “It’s much more serialized. Gina and I originally sold it and developed it for streaming for Paramount+. It moved over to network [with a 2024-25 season straight-to-series order], but we wanted to do more of a streaming style of show.”

Monreal picks up the thread. “The tone itself is a bit grittier, it’s a bit darker, which we love, because we feel like we’re pushing the envelope as far as what the franchise does, but at the same time, we’re keeping the heart of it,” she says. “What makes NCIS so beloved is this found family

The showrunner pair have written for what they call the ‘OG NCIS’ and want fans to come along for a new kind of NCIS ride.

“We believe we know what that special sauce is, and we think we’ve infused our show with that,” North says. “But we really are going to a deeper place where we’re taking these characters and learning so much. The most special episodes of NCIS are always the ones about our characters. Those are all sprinkled throughout the seasons, and those are the ones that stick with people. Gina and I have sought out to do that every single week on NCIS Origins.”

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