Thus far, the most iconic crossover in NCIS was in 2023, when three shows came together to give us 3 hours of chaotic and satisfying programming. The three-way crossover involved the flagship show, NCIS: Los Angeles, and NCIS: Hawai’i, where characters we didn’t know we needed together gave us hours of laughs and conflicts. But in 2025, it seems like the franchise is trying to one-up its previous success, as CBS announces a two-way crossover (through an Instagram post no less) that will transcend the barriers of time.
Last year, NCIS expanded its franchise with an installment that took us back in time to when our beloved Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) was only a probie joining the bureau when it was still called NIS. Austin Stowell takes over the role of young Gibbs in NCIS: Origins and tells us a story he has never shared before. The show has already made NCIS history by being its first prequel, but now it will be involved in an unprecedented crossover event with the original show, and the question on everyone’s lips is: how in hell are they planning on achieving this?
‘NCIS’ Announced a Decades-Spanning Crossover Between Two Shows
If we weren’t talking about NCIS, the most obvious answer to this question is time-travel. Okay, maybe that’s a little far-fetched, but the clues CBS has dropped for us point to playing around with time constraints in ingenious, less sci-fi driven ways. The 23rd season of the flagship show and the second season of Origins are slated to premiere on the same date, Tuesday, October 14, and the two-hour crossover event is scheduled for 11 November, Veterans Day. Already, the idea of good timing comes into how this event is possible, as CBS’s FBI spin-offs were cancelled, allowing for the NCIS-verse to re-locate to this primetime slot.
In the Instagram post, Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) and young Gibbs appear on the divided screen in their respective timelines. Aside from Gibbs being puzzled about Torres’ futuristic calculator (phone), they also tease that the crossover will be achieved through a “case that spans decades.” The caption further explains that it’s “the case that just keeps coming back,” and the logline reads: “Gibbs and team investigate the small-town death of a naval officer in the ‘90s on NCIS: Origins — a case that’s unexpectedly re-opened in the present day on NCIS. In true NCIS fashion, it will be death and investigations that tie this time-bending event together.
How Will ‘NCIS’ And ‘Origins’ Handle the Time Difference?
On the day, Origins will be taking the flagship show’s 8pm time slot and first introduce us to the case, then NCIS will follow immediately after, where the case is re-opened. While this does seem like a simple, linear plan, the episode still requires some impressive writing to make it feel like a crossover event where two timelines collide instead of just two sequential episodes. Writing in elements that tie the case and characters together cohesively and seamlessly may be tricky but will likely yield a fun result. Imagine the team opening old case files and seeing Mike Franks’ (Kyle Schmid) signature scrawled on the bottom, or identifying little idiosyncrasies of the case that we witnessed through Origins followed by the consequences of them in NCIS. It’s as close to communicating over time and space as the franchise could get.
But more than just the physical elements that bind the episodes together, the event would need to sustain some sort of tonal cohesion to maintain its appeal. Specifically, suspense and consistency are paramount. The team needs to be mindful of the details of the case, allowing them to add up throughout the two timelines and justify why the case wasn’t solved fully in Origins. Also, considering the technologies available at the time and the character stories that haunt them at this point of the show would be important, including Lala’s (Mariel Molino) ambiguous fate and Parker’s (Gary Cole) grave loss. But if the writers flex their creative muscles properly, this decades-spanning crossover could potentially become the most iconic of the franchise.
The ‘NCIS’ and ‘Origins’ Crossover Has Potential To Be Iconic
CBS may also be teeing up another way to tie these two timelines together in the crossover, as they announced that the young version of Ducky Mallard (originally played by David McCallum and now will be guest starred by Adam Campbell) will appear in Origins for one tribute episode. As such, there is an opportunity to use the same technique during the crossover. Since none of the cast overlap between the two shows, they could potentially introduce past or future versions of these characters via guest stars to further weave the story together. This may be more of a stretch, since many of the characters in NCIS have established backstories, and the only two Origins characters who were in the flagship show are dead (Franks) and retired (Gibbs), but their willingness to do it with Ducky may suggest it’s not off the table.
There are still countless questions about how the franchise will be able to overcome the 30-year gap between the two shows, but the more you think about it, the less egregious the prospect becomes. With creative and thoughtful writing, the crossover may just rival NCIS’s formidable three-way one as it strives to achieve something the franchise has never done. Either way, once these episodes air, NCIS will officially be able to say they defied the laws of time.
