NCIS: Origins said goodbye to one of its leaders ahead of the third season, with Gina Lucita Monreal exiting; David J. North will be the sole showrunner going forward. But joining the executive producers on the NCIS prequel is a familiar face to franchise fans: Eric Christian Olsen, who starred as Marty Deeks on NCIS: Los Angeles.

Brian Dietzen and Diona Reasonover talked to Olsen about just that on the latest episode of the NCIS: Partners & Probies podcast they host. He also offered up a tease about what to expect when the series premieres this fall.

“Knowing what’s in store for premiere week now for Season 3 is really going to be compelling,” he said. “We’re so excited about Season 3 and some of the ideas that we have.”

As for how his joining the prequel came about, “With Gina leaving, [it was], let’s give them every opportunity to succeed in this Season 3,” Olsen explained, noting that Monreal and North “wrote two great seasons of television” and calling them “absolute hitters.”

He continued, “You have a season 3, we’re going to have to bring in a lot of people in the writers’ room to make sure that we can continue to tell those great stories. It’s every aspect of preparing for this and right now, we’re stacking that writers’ room with so much great support for David and some people that we’re so excited about, and figuring out like, ‘All right, what does this person speak to? What is their strength set?’ And making sure that all those pieces are full. We have an amazing group of people that’ll be joining him for  Season 3 to make sure that [happens].”

He also praised the “incredible” cast — Austin Stowell, Kyle Schmid, Mariel Molino, Tyla Abercrumbie, Diany Rodriguez, and Caleb Foote, with Mark Harmon appearing as the present-day Gibbs in every episode of Season 3 — “You look at those characters, and you think, ‘They’ve done such a beautiful job of building such complex backstory.’”

So, when he got the call asking to “help out” on Season 3, “I didn’t have to think about it,” Olsen shared. “It was like, ‘This is an absolute yes, whatever I can do.’ Obviously, the NCIS universe is such an important part of my life, and the opportunity to come in and help with everything we talked about, like what you see every day on the mothership — ‘How can I help? how can I have a voice at this table that can help fix some of the stuff that we’re seeing?’… This isn’t so much fixing it as much as it’s the support after losing one of your co-showrunners, so just giving them, as I said, every opportunity to tell the best version of that story because I think the audience deserves it, and I think that cast and that crew deserve it.”

NCIS: Origins, Season 3, Fall 2026, Tuesdays, 10/9c, CBS