CBS has finally revealed who will play a younger version of Scott Bakula’s beloved NCIS: New Orleans character, Dwayne Pride, in Season 2 of NCIS: Origins. Shea Buckner (Only Murders in the Building) will appear in a special episode as the newly minted Probationary NIS Agent Pride, exploring his early career and history with a young Gibbs (Austin Stowell).
The episode will also reunite the Fed Five, the legendary NIS task force introduced in NCIS Season 11, which includes Gibbs, Michael Franks (Kyle Schmid), Dan McLane, Felix Betts (Stuart Margolin), and Pride. While Gibbs and Franks already appear as young men on Origins, casting for McLane and Betts is ongoing. The storyline will showcase the 90s-era team tackling their first high-stakes missions.
Showrunners Gina Lucita Monrealand and David J. North aim to explore Pride and Gibbs’ early dynamic while expanding the legacies of the Fed Five. It remains unclear if the Privileged Killer case from Season 11 will be revisited, but longtime fans are eager to see the connections.
Buckner, a former Olympian in water polo, has also appeared as Tony Caccimelio on Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building and starred in the off-Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire.
NCIS: Origins Season 2 airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.
