Three Familiar Faces Return to NCIS: Origins as Season 3 Guest Stars
Three actors from the NCIS franchise are coming back to NCIS: Origins this season, each in a single guest role. Muse Watson, Roma Maffia and Joe Spano will play characters from the original NCIS series, according to Deadline.
A guest star is a performer who appears in a few episodes without being a series regular. Watson returns as Mike Franks in Episode 306, which airs on November 17. Maffia plays Vera Strickland in Episode 307, airing December 1. Spano takes on Tobias Fornell in Episode 308, airing December 8. All three episodes air on Tuesday nights at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
The three characters appear in the present-day storyline. Mark Harmon returns there as Leroy Jethro Gibbs, the character he played across the original series. Their scenes focus on the disappearance of Lala Dominguez, played by Mariel Molino. Deadline reports that Franks, Strickland and Fornell each bring a piece of insight into what happened to her.
The past-timeline story follows a younger Gibbs, played by Austin Stowell. Kyle Schmid plays a young Mike Franks in those flashbacks. Lucas Dixon played a young Tobias Fornell in Season 1, Episode 6.
For Spano, this is a first appearance on NCIS: Origins. He last shared screen time with Harmon in Season 18, Episode 5 of NCIS, which aired in 2021. Watson and Maffia also reprised their roles in a 2025 crossover episode that linked NCIS: Origins and NCIS.
The season carries other changes. Michael Weatherly appears as a new director, Tony DiNozzo. Emily Wickersham made her debut as Eleanor "Ellie" Bishop in the October 27 episode.
NCIS: Origins is produced by CBS Studios. Season 3 executive producers are David J. North, Mark Harmon, Sean Harmon, Michele Greco and Eric Christian Olsen.
Guest returns like these tend to draw a particular kind of viewer, the one who followed the original show for years. The three new episodes are scheduled across the first three weeks of the Tuesday run, so the Franks, Strickland and Fornell storyline arrives in a steady sequence rather than all at once.
