NCIS Star Mark Harmon Finally Speaks Out About Gibbs’ Exit In Season 19

NCIS Star Mark Harmon Finally Speaks Out About Gibbs’ Exit In Season 19

Like many procedurals, NCIS has gone through a number of cast changes over its nearly 20 years on the air, but up until Season 19, Mark Harmon’s Leroy Jethro Gibbs had been one of the show’s few constants since the beginning. However, in Season 19’s fourth episode, “Great Wide Open,”Harmon left the TV series, but he was still shown on the NCISThe opening credits of the remaining season. Harmon finally spoke out about Gibbs’ farewell 10 months later.

NCIS Season 19 aired its season finale on May 23, and we’re a little over a month away from Season 20 kicking off with an NCIS: Hawai’i crossover. The DVD collection of NCISSeason 19 begins Tuesday, August 16 ETMark Harmon talked about the place we left Gibbs in a special featurette.

It is my character that has drawn me here for so long. I want to keep it interesting and challenging. This character is plot-wise it has chosen the path it chose. It was honest and acceptable to me.

The groundwork for Mark Harmon’s departure from NCIS began forming in the latter half of Season 18, shortly after the show said goodbye to Maria Bello’s Jacqueline Sloane. Leroy Jethro Gibbs was suspended from NCIS for assaulting a suspect who was abusing dogs, and it became clear that he wasn’t interested in getting his badge back. Gibbs then started forming a bond with reporter Marcie Warren (played by Harmon’s real-life wife Pam Dawber), and the two teamed up to investigate a series of mysterious murders. The two came to the conclusion that a serial killer was responsible, but their investigation hit a snag when Gibbs’ new boat was blown up in the final minutes of the Season 18 finale as he was driving it.

Gibbs was able to survive the attack on his life and discover the truth behind the killings over the course of Season 19. This ultimately took him and Sean Murray’s Timothy McGee to Nekton Bay, Alaska, where the two of them and Gary Cole’s Alden Parker ended this threat once and for all. With Cole deciding to let Gibbs go rather than bring him into custody like he’d been told to do by his FBI superiors, Mark Harmon’s character decided to stay in Alaska rather than come back to Washington D.C. with Cole and McGee because he’d found a “sense of peace.”

Mark Harmon stated this in his article NCIS Season 19 featurette, he thought that Gibbs’ journey for these final episodes made sense in terms of shaking things up for the character, as it felt like the kind of path Gibbs would take. Harmon also gave the following assurance as to how Gibbs is doing these last days:

I’m not retired… The character lives in Alaska, so far as I know.

With Leroy Jethro Gibbs opting not to return to NCIS, Alden Parker, who was fired by the FBI, was hired to take over as team leader for McGee, Wilmer Valderrama’s Nick Torres and Katrina Law’s Jessica Knight. Gibbs was still mentioned throughout the rest of the program, even though he was not present. NCIS Season 19, including when it was revealed he’d set up a college scholarship club. Sean Murray, who was asked if Mark Harmon would be returning to CBS one day, stated shortly before the Season 19 final that he believed that. “there’s a possibility of that happening,” and CBS Entertainment president Kelly Kahl said the day after the finale aired that “the door is open if he ever wants to pop in for an episode, or multiple episodes.”

You can count on CinemaBlend to share if it’s officially announced that Mark Harmon is coming back to NCIS, whether it’s as a series regular again or in a guest role. Season 20 premieres on September 19. Our 2022 TV Schedule covers all other programming for the remainder of the year.

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