Mark Harmon and Michael Weatherly will share the screen for the first time in ten years, with CBS confirming on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, that the long-awaited Gibbs and DiNozzo reunion lands in the Tuesday, October 20 episode of “NCIS: Origins.”
The moment has been a decade in the making. Harmon played Leroy Jethro Gibbs on the flagship “NCIS” from 2003 until his departure during season 19 in 2021, and Weatherly’s Anthony “Tony” DiNozzo spent 13 of those seasons as the wisecracking second-in-command who never quite stopped calling Gibbs “boss.” Weatherly left the mothership series after season 13 in 2016. Since then, the two actors have not appeared together on screen.
That changes on October 20, when Harmon’s Gibbs returns to the agency’s Washington, D.C. headquarters to seek help from his former subordinate — now sitting behind a director’s nameplate.
What the preview shows: Gibbs walks back into NCIS
The official “NCISverse” Instagram account posted a preview clip of the reunion, and it leans hard into the homecoming. “You’re home. And home means family,” Gibbs says as he steps off the elevator at the NCIS office. “And whether it’s been 10 minutes or 10 years, when you need them, family is always there.”
The clip shows Gibbs walking through the office with a backpack slung over his shoulder. He knocks, walks into the office bearing DiNozzo’s director’s nameplate, and the door closes. The full conversation, presumably, is being saved for the episode itself.
Why does Gibbs need DiNozzo? Because of what happened in the season 3 premiere on October 6, when unknown assailants shot the retired agent outside his remote Alaskan cabin. Per the preview, Gibbs returns to headquarters to enlist the help of DiNozzo, whose exact title is described by USA Today and Deadline as the agency’s director, while Yahoo and US Weekly report he was named deputy director in the flagship show’s season 24 premiere.
A decade apart: the Gibbs and DiNozzo history
The pairing remains the most beloved in the franchise’s history. Gibbs was the gruff, no-nonsense boss and mentor; DiNozzo was the movie-quoting lieutenant who grew into a genuine leader under him. Their dynamic anchored the original series through its biggest years.
Weatherly’s exit in 2016 did not end his connection to the character entirely. He returned for a brief cameo in the 2024 episode “The Stories We Leave Behind,” which paid tribute to medical examiner Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard, played by the late David McCallum. He later reprised the role in the spinoff “NCIS: Tony & Ziva,” which ended after one season in 2025.
This fall, Weatherly came back to the flagship “NCIS” in its season 24 premiere on October 6. In that episode, he helped his longtime friend and former “probie” Timothy McGee, played by Sean Murray, solve a case involving McGee’s long-lost son — and was named the new deputy director, a role he is expected to hold for the rest of the season at least.
Harmon, meanwhile, stayed away from acting on the franchise after 2021 but never left it behind. He has served as an executive producer on “NCIS: Origins” since the prequel premiered in 2024, and he narrates the series, which follows a younger Gibbs, played by Austin Stowell, in the early 1990s.
The shooting that pulled Gibbs out of Alaska
Harmon’s full-time return as present-day Gibbs began with a bang — literally. Moments into the season 3 premiere, Gibbs is shot near the heart by a sniper at his Alaskan home, where he had been living in retirement with his adopted rescue dog. The sniper checks for a pulse, finds none, and walks away saying, “One down, one to go.”
Gibbs survives using a breathing technique — a controlled trick that slows his heart to a stop — which he learned in the Marines. He then patches himself up, loads his rifle, and heads out with his dog to find whoever is hunting him.
Showrunner and executive producer David J. North told USA Today it took something drastic to bring the character back. “It needed a really big thing to get Gibbs out of Alaska,” North said. “It wasn’t enough for older Gibbs to be shot and want revenge. Gibbs has to protect someone else that he has a relationship with. He had no choice. He needs to go figure out who else was in trouble.”
North also confirmed the wound will linger. “The bullet didn’t hit his heart,” he said. “We saw him patch it up in the cabin, but it’s not the end of it. It’s going to track through the rest of the season.”
1992, Camp Pendleton and the mystery driving Season 3
The present-day shooting is only half the story. Season 3 of “NCIS: Origins” weaves the modern-day plot together with events from 1992, when young Gibbs was still training at Camp Pendleton, California. That year also happens to be when the Naval Investigative Service officially became the Naval Criminal Investigative Service — a bureaucratic changeover the premiere plays for fun, complete with an NCIS naming party and branded hats.
The case that starts it all involves Special Agent Bernard “Randy” Randolf, played by Caleb Foote, who is kidnapped by Russians and saved by the team. North told Deadline the premiere’s events are “directly tied” to those Camp Pendleton days, and that the team’s first case opened a box they thought they had closed.
The season’s central question is who the assassins are targeting next, 34 years after the original incident. Special Agent Cecilia “Lala” Dominguez, played by Mariel Molino, is a strong candidate given her central place in the story, and North told USA Today that “Lala’s fate is the throughline that ‘Origins’ is all about.” Another possibility is Randy himself. A possible Russian mole storyline also points toward forensic analyst Woodrow “Woody” Browne, played by Bobby Moynihan, though North is keeping the truth close.
The rest of the “Origins” cast includes Kyle Schmid as Gibbs’ mentor Mike Franks, Tyla Abercrumbie, Diany Rodriguez and Caleb Foote. Season 3’s executive producers are North, Mark Harmon, Sean Harmon, Michele Greco and Eric Christian Olsen, with CBS Studios producing.
More NCIS-verse crossovers on the way?
The reunion arrives amid a busy stretch for the franchise. “NCIS” veteran Brian Dietzen made a crossover appearance as medical examiner Dr. Jimmy Palmer in the October 6 series premiere of “NCIS: New York,” alongside LL Cool J’s Sam Hanna. New episodes of “NCIS” and “NCIS: Origins” now air back to back on CBS Tuesdays, at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET respectively, with “NCIS: New York” in between at 9 p.m.
When Deadline asked North whether more NCIS legends might appear as the mystery unfolds, he teased: “I’d say it’s a definite possibility.”
For now, fans have a date to circle. The Gibbs and DiNozzo reunion episode of “NCIS: Origins” airs Tuesday, October 20, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBS, with streaming available on Paramount+ the following day.