In a retrospective, it is impossible to imagine someone except Mark Harmon in the role of Gruf's head "NFIS" Leroy Ethetro Gibbs. It wasn't very much a the role of career for the actor, Who has already built a legacy of shows like "St. Elsewhere "and" Chicago Hope "before joining the inaugural season of the CBS military police. However, it soon became clear that Gibbs would be his definitive role. Harmon embodied the character in a way that made him an undisputed center of the ensemble during his 19 seasons with the show. He left NCIS in 2021But Gibbs persists: In 2024, CBS threw the Ncis: Origins show, with Austin Stoell who played young Gibbs while Harmon recounts, Young Sheldon-Stil.

Knowing the importance of Harmon for the NCIS franchise, it may be surprising to discover that people behind the show did not call his agent the second who imagined the image of Gibbs. In 2023, NCIS creators discussed the story of the show with history Hollywood reporterAnd the former head of Cas-Casting Peter Golden revealed that Harmon's name appeared only after a few other candidates, when casting director Susan Bluestein suggested:

"Susan said, 'What about Mark Harmon?' Mark was a big deal and everyone thought: "We offer Mark Sharmon an offer and when we don't get it, let's get the list we could get." Mark had a meeting with (NCIS co-creator) Don Belisario, and they hit him, and Mark agreed to do so at once, the show brought me much greater importance in my mind. "

While Harmon was certainly a catch thanks to his status as a successful actor, the initial plan was to increase even higher. Leroy's first true main candidate Ethetro Gibbs "NFIS" was none other than Scott Glenn. Actor of sincere films, who often appeared in several films a year and had titles like "Silence of Lambs" and "Training Day" in his resume, Glenn's walk was a swing for a TV show at a time when it was still unusual for Actors on the big screen to "cut" TV projects. However, Susan Bluestin told the Hollywood Reporter that NFIS people were very interested in hitting Glenn - either as Gibbs, or as an eccentric medical examination of the Donald Donald Malard show.

"Scott Glenn, yes. And Scott Glenn was also considered the role of Daci. There were a lot of discussions about Scott Glenn, and eventually Scott Glenn passed. And other people went to Gibbs."

Although Glenn as Gibbs wasn't supposed to be, the actor who began his career on television in the 1960s-end ended in re-concluding a small screen in his repertoire with a series of TV films in the mid-2000s. In the 2010s, Glenn worked primarily on TV projects, playing the Lord of the Blind Martial Arts Stick in Marvel's Saga Saga, Kevin Garvey SR. As for Daci Malard, the role of the end went The "Uncle's Man" actor David McCallumwho remained with NFIS until his death in 2023.

Scott Glenn was not even the most impressive name of NCIS creators who are thought to play Leroy Ethetro Gibbs before they missed to make the procedural history with Mark Harmon. In the story of Hollywood Reporter, Bluestin mentioned a series of unnamed "other people" who went through the role, but really interesting casting ideas came to an early stage of planning. At this point, NCIS was considering some completely shocking names, including the early favorite: the only and only Harrison Ford.

People at NCIS justifiably thought that Ford could be a wonderful choice to show Gibbs, but with all the righteousness, they were also quite aware that their chances against actually getting the guy were astronomical. As Peter Golden described the process:

"(Of) Harrison Ford - when you sit down, and you have an initial casting talk, no name is out of the table. In the early 2000s, Harrison Forms of the world (rarely TV was made). But that didn't happen .

As Bluein explained, NFIS's team took a spit approach when it comes to early casting ideas. Since their brain storm process had very little prohibitions, Leroy Ethetro's early desires board included some extremely known names, although Bluein and others never ended up reaching them all:

"There were names like Alec Baldwin, Chris Cooper, Clive Owen, Kevin Bacon, Tom Berenger, Val Kilmer, Charlie Sheen, Aidan Quinn, Patrick Wwezce. We did not make offers to those people.

While a parallel reality where the NCIS response team is driven by Kevin Bacon or Charlie Sheen (or indeed Harrison Ford) while Scott Glen Harmon accepted the offer - worked extremely good for all involved. Even so, this view in the casting process of what has become a successful and long -lasting procedural series, shed light on the long and often difficult casting process, the show should take it long before the cameras start rolling.