{"id":3909,"date":"2025-11-27T20:34:48","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T20:34:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/?p=3909"},"modified":"2025-11-27T20:34:48","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T20:34:48","slug":"ncis-bombshell-the-surprising-story-behind-mark-harmons-son-not-playing-young-gibbs-in-origins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/?p=3909","title":{"rendered":"NCIS Bombshell: The Surprising Story Behind Mark Harmon\u2019s Son Not Playing Young Gibbs in Origins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sean Harmon played young Leroy Jethro Gibbs in several\u00a0<em>NCIS<\/em>\u00a0flashbacks, but he didn\u2019t return for the prequel\u00a0<em>NCIS: Origins<\/em>. Instead, Austin Stowell was cast in the role.<\/p>\n<p>Although Sean isn\u2019t acting in the series, he remains heavily involved as an executive producer alongside his father, Mark Harmon, who also narrates the show.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-3910\" src=\"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/FB_IMG_1764275636382-300x183.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"183\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/FB_IMG_1764275636382-300x183.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/FB_IMG_1764275636382-1024x626.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/FB_IMG_1764275636382-768x469.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/FB_IMG_1764275636382.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>According to an October 15\u00a0<em>In Touch<\/em>\u00a0report, Sean\u2019s choice not to reprise the role created \u201csome drama\u201d behind the scenes. A source said Sean stepped back because he \u201chas a lot on his plate.\u201d However, the insider also claimed CBS wanted a more recognizable actor, and Mark agreed that choosing Stowell-who they felt had \u201cleading man good looks and star power\u201d-would help grow the franchise.<\/p>\n<p>Mark told\u00a0<em>Forbes<\/em>\u00a0in October 2024 that the idea for\u00a0<em>Origins<\/em> came from Sean, adding that he\u2019s only involved in a supportive way. Sean explained that while playing young Gibbs was an honor, he never intended to build a career around the role. Moving into executive producing felt like the right next step.<\/p>\n<p>Sean also endorsed Stowell as the perfect choice: \u201cWhen he walked into the audition room, you could feel his talent and professionalism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mark echoed that Sean simply has many interests-acting, writing, producing, surfing-and chose to focus on what he enjoys most.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sean Harmon played young Leroy Jethro Gibbs in several\u00a0NCIS\u00a0flashbacks, but he didn\u2019t return for the prequel\u00a0NCIS: Origins. Instead, Austin Stowell was cast in the role. Although Sean&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3909"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3911,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3909\/revisions\/3911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}