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CBS’s flagship NCIS series is crossing over with its first prequel spinoff, NCIS: Origins, and, per Entertainment Weekly, stars of both shows are excited to share what to expect. Origins is the sixth spinoff series coming from the NCIS franchise. In Origins, however, there’s a 30-year gap between the show and the events of the original NCIS, which should prove interesting in the crossover episode. It turns out, a lot was contingent on NCIS mainstay Mark Harmon.

Sean Murray, who stars on NCIS as Special Agent Timothy McGee, said that because of the three-decade gap, it was challenging to pull off a crossover. “Seeing as how I couldn’t figure out a way in, you know, a reality in which that could possibly happen, I did not see this coming,” he said. Fans of NCIS will see the return of Harmon in his iconic role as Leroy Jethro Gibbs, whom he portrayed on the show from 2003 to 2022, as well as Season 11 guest star Roma Maffia.

Murray credited NCIS co-creators and co-showunners David J. North and Gina Lucita Monreal for crafting the crossover episode. “With the timeline differences, we’ve done crossovers with some of the others in the franchise before, but Origins being 30 years prior, I couldn’t imagine it would happen. But they really figured it out,” Murray said.

The crossover episode is actually based on a documentary, according to North. “When Gina and I first were talking about this idea – it’s loosely based on a documentary called No One Saw a Thing, about a town bully,” North said. “When we reached out to NCIS and talked to the writer of [the NCIS half of the crossover], Marco Schnabel, he told me that he and I had talked about doing an episode of that on original NCIS, and I had just completely forgot. It felt like a perfect story to get into both worlds,” North added.

NCIS Star: ‘There Will Be Tears’

Image via CBS

The two-hour event will feature a plotline that includes a train wreck, a small town full of murder suspects, a political assassination gone awry, a wrongful conviction, and a prison break. The episode bridges the 30-year gap between an unresolved case spanning that time frame. Austin Stowell, who plays the younger Gibbs in Origins said of the episode, “Justice wasn’t served. Gibbs hates a liar. I’d imagine that while he was able to move on, [that] doesn’t mean he doesn’t think about it. Moving on from something doesn’t mean you’ve forgotten. You’ve just learned how to live with it.”

Wilmer Valderrama, who plays Special Agent Nick Torres in NCIS, talked about the emotional aspect of the crossover event, which also takes time to celebrate the 250th birthday of the U.S. Navy. “The show has always made a beautiful home and space for veteran stories, to pay tribute to our military, our brothers and sisters in uniform. That’s a big backbone of this show,” Valderrama said. “We’re trying to have something that feels really heartfelt. We always like to make people cry with these episodes, so there will be tears,” he added.

The two-hour NCIS and NCIS: Origins crossover event premieres on Nov. 11 on CBS and will stream the next day on Paramount+.