Major ‘NCIS: New Orleans’ Character Returning for ‘Origins’, New Actor Revealed

NCIS: Origins is bringing back another beloved character.

Deadline reports that the younger version of Scott Bakula’s Dwayne Pride from NCIS: New Orleans will be making an appearance in the NCIS prequel.

Shea Buckner will take over the role in an episode of Origins later this season. In the prequel, NIS Special Agent Dwayne Pride is a former Sheriff’s Deputy and is now a newly minted Probationary Special Agent from the NIS Panama office. “He has a history with Gibbs (Austin Stowell), and the two must resolve their past tension as they go undercover on a case.”

The episode is said to “heavily focus” on Pride and reunite the Fed Five task force, a group of NIS agents who unmasked the Privileged Killer, Spencer Hanlon, in NCIS’ 11^th season. Along with Pride, the group consists of Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon), Michael Franks (Muse Watson), Dan McLane, and Felix Betts (Stuart Magolin). Austin Stowell and Kyle Schmid play Gibbs and Franks, respectively, on Origins. It was recently announced that Adam Kulbersh and Mark Deklin will play Betts and McLane, respectively.

Bakula portrayed Special Agent Dwayne Pride on all seven seasons of NCIS: New Orleans. The series started off as a two-part backdoor pilot during Season 11 of NCIS, “Crescent City,” in which the Fed Five are explored. NCIS: NOLA is the second NCIS spinoff and ended in 2021. Pride is the latest NCIS fan-favorite to make a comeback for Origins, and who knows who else could be next.

Shea Buckner can most recently be seen in the fifth season of Only Murders in the Building as Tony Cacimelio. Other credits include Prom Dates, Survive the Night, Escape Plan: The Extractors, Mom, The Row, First Kill, Arsenal, Broken at Love, FBI, The Rookie, The Blacklist, and The Equalizer. He also directed, wrote, produced, and starred in the short film Expresso.

Additional information on the upcoming episode has not been shared, but more details will surely be released in the near future. It will be fun for fans to get more of Pride, especially since it’s been four years since NOLA ended, and there’s no telling what other fan-favorite franchise characters will be brought back for Origins. For now, new episodes of the prequel air on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS, streaming the next day on Paramount+. All seven seasons of NCIS: New Orleans are also streaming on Paramount+.