Origins’ Austin Stowell Talks Gibbs’ Rules And Reveals The Real-Life Rule He Learned From ‘Sage’ Mark Harmon

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NCIS’ Gibbs prequel series NCIS: Origins has been taking fans back to the ‘90s pre-NCIS to follow a young Leroy Jethro Gibbs, played by Austin Stowell. The show, which is now airing amid the 2025 TV schedule, has already offered viewers plenty of thrills and chills while also building on the franchise’s mythology. Some of those references include Gibbs’ iconic rules, and Stowell opened up about those as well as the actual lesson he learned from the “sage” Mark Harmon himself.

Throughout Mark Harmon’s run on the first 19 seasons of NCIS, the show would occasionally throw out a Gibbs Rule. Those are collectively a series of guidelines that the agent lives by and teaches the people he works with. Origins has only referenced a few rules thus far, some of which are actually relevant to Austin Stowell. But he tells TV Insider the advice that Harmon has been giving him, and it’s no Gibbs Rule:

This is so introspective. I feel like I’m in a therapy session all of a sudden. I would say that at this point, this pertains more to Gibbs than to me, that I’ve got some very trusty voices in my head right now — one of them being Mark Harmon, who’s been a sage to me during this time. I mean, this is somebody who literally did this for 20 years, and so he’s getting to give me the inside scoop on how to go about my life right now. First and foremost, telling me that sleep is overrated.

While Origins focuses on a young Gibbs with Harmon serving as narrator and EP. However, it seems the veteran actor still has a heavy presence behind the scenes, and it’s great to hear that he’s been taking great care of Stowell in such a way. Considering that this a character that has been around for over 20 years, Stowell has big shoes to fill. So it sounds like Harmon is making sure that Stowell knows everything he needs, whether about Gibbs or life.

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Even though the prequel series has slowly been introducing the Gibbs Rules, the series has yet to reveal other aspects of Gibbs. That includes when Gibbs started to build boats. Producer and co-showrunner David J. North previously said fans will have to “stay tuned” to learn that answer. At the very least, viewers have been able to learn a lot about Gibbs’ life after losing Kelly and Shannon as well as when he first met Franks.

As the season goes on, more reveals are sure to come to light. The series has yet to be renewed for a second season, but it did recently get a full-season order of 18 episodes. So that could possibly bode well for the production. Whether or not these future episodes will involve another on-screen appearance from Mark Harmon remains to be seen, but I imagine that he’ll continue to make an impact behind the camera, whether as a narrator or as a source of guidance for Austin Stowell and others.

NCIS: Origins is still on a hiatus following the holidays, but the series will return in full force this coming Monday, January 27, at 10 p.m. ET on CBS, following NCIS.