Kyle Schmid as Mike Franks in NCIS: ORIGINS – Season 1 | ©2024 CBS/Art Streiber

NCIS: ORIGINS is a prequel series to CBS’s long-running (twenty-two seasons and renewed for a twenty-third) NCIS. Both shows air on CBS Monday nights and are thereafter available for streaming on Paramount+.

NCIS is the acronym for Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the department of the U.S. Navy that deals with, as its name suggests, investigating crimes involving that branch of the military.

Created by showrunners Gloria Lucita Monreal & David J. North, NCIS: ORIGINS, is now in its first season and renewed for a second. It deals with the early career of Leroy Jethro Gibbs, played in ORIGINS by Austin Stowell. Gibbs, as portrayed by Mark Harmon, was the special agent in charge of the unit for most of the run of NCIS, but he retired (and Harmon left the series) in 2021, replaced by Special Agent Alden Parker (Gary Cole).

However, Harmon remains involved with the franchise as an executive producer on both NCIS and NCIS: ORIGINS, also serving as narrator on the latter.

NCIS: ORIGINS opens in Camp Pendleton in 1990, a time when the department was still known as NIS (the change to NCIS will come in 1992). In command is Special Agent Mike Franks, played by Kyle Schmid. NCIS viewers have met Franks as an older man and Gibbs’s good friend, portrayed by Muse Watson. Schmid, however, is new to the franchise.

Schmid, from Ontario, Canada, has major credits in both movies and television, including filmmaker David Cronenberg’s A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS, SIX (a series in which Schmid played a member of Navy SEAL Team Six), BLOOD TIES, COPPER, LOST GIRL, BEING HUMAN, and BIG SKY.

Kyle Schmid as Mike Franks in NCIS: ORIGINS – Season 1 – “Vivo o Muerto” | ©2025 CBS/Robert Voets

When CBS has a press day for the Television Critics Association press tour, Schmid participates in the Q&A panel for NCIS: ORIGINS, then makes himself available for a one-on-one follow-up conversation.

Much of Schmid’s work has been in procedurals that also have something else going on: the Civil War in COPPER, small-town intrigue in BIG SKY, the supernatural in LOST GIRL and BEING HUMAN, and now military drama in NCIS: ORIGINS. Is this a mixture he has an affinity for, or are these just the projects that have come his way?

Schmid laughs. “I think I have an affinity for good writing. As an actor in an industry that is forever difficult, all I’ve ever wanted to do was find layered, complex characters and try to bring them to life. COPPER started with Tom Fontana [who created the series with Will Rokos], a writer who is in a league of his own. I was then able to work with Bill and David Broyles on SIX, also writers who come from the world of CASTAWAY [the film with] Tom Hanks, and BAND OF BROTHERS, phenomenal television.

“In finding a network show like [NCIS: ORIGINS] and reading that first script, finding something special in this was not only a pleasant surprise, but it came from David North and Gina Monreal, other writers who are in a league of their own. So, to bring Mike Franks to life with their guidance, originally played by Muse Watson, who created a character that was not only dynamic but a fan favorite and wonderfully acted, it was an honor to take on the challenge of NCIS: ORIGINS.

On stage, it generally doesn’t matter if a role has been played before, since audiences want to know what a new performer will bring to the material. For camera, however, does Schmid feel that there are certain aspects of Watson’s portrayal of Franks that he should emulate?

“I feel less pressure as an actor, as long as I can play within a specific set of rules. Now, Muse Watson was born in Louisiana and raised in Texas. Mike Franks talks,” Schmid adopts the character’s Texan accent, “like this. Mike Franks isn’t Kyle Schmid. I wear brown contacts. Muse has brown eyes. There are specific things that lend a hand to recreating a character in that regard, in the physicalities, in the voice.

NCIS: ORIGINS – Season 1 Key Art | ©2025 CBS

“Because this takes place before the original NCIS premiered, there is the freedom as an actor to find parts of him that are your own. And so, it’s a layered process for me. As long as I can play within a certain set of rules that are unchanging – we’ll call those ‘the constants,’ like science, right? – then I have the freedom to play in a world that is constantly changing. And so, I get to have my cake and eat it, too, in some regards, as long as I’m playing within those rules.”

Most of Schmid’s television work has been on cable. How is it moving to a network series?

“Cable tends to be grittier, a little more dramatic sometimes, a little darker. [In NCIS: ORIGINS], I get to play the darkness with more contrast, and have more fun with it, take opportunities to let jokes land a little more easily, but also keeping my feet grounded in my process as an actor in trying to tell the truth and being honest with myself as a character, which I find is always at the core of what I do.

NCIS: ORIGINS – Season 1 Key Art | ©2025 CBS

“I’ve found that with this iteration of NCIS, [it doesn’t] just maintain the true energy of the procedural that NCIS did so very well, but also build on the name of the show with scripts that, in my personal opinion, are a step above, and something that I have been pleasantly surprised to be part of, and incredibly impressed with from a creative and integral standpoint. We’re making a new show, and it’s phenomenal.”

What has the public reaction been like? “I think it’s neat to see. You always meet fans of shows, and you understand why they’re passionate. They’ve been watching it, they invest emotionally, and it’s their time away to escape life. But on this show in particular, I’ve been introduced to a group of producers and writers and creatives who are just as passionate about the show as those fans are, because they care so very deeply. And it’s just evidence that they’ve made something that is kind of beautiful and full of integrity, and we’re all very lucky to be part of that.”

Related: Exclusive Interview: Actor Kyle Schmid on Season 1 of the CBS prequel series NCIS: ORIGINS

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Article: Exclusive Interview: Actor Kyle Schmid on Season 1 of the CBS prequel series NCIS: ORIGINS

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