NCIS season 21 episode 2: Why didn’t Mark Harmon return?

We know that last night’s NCIS season 21 episode 2 brought the return of Michael Weatherly, but why not Mark Harmon?

We do think that a lot of people out there likely assumed that the actor could be coming back as Gibbs for the episode, given that Ducky was such an enormous part of his life and the two characters were both around all the way back in the pilot. As it turns out, it actually turns out that there were discussions around trying to make it happen!

In a new post over at The Wrap, it is confirmed that Harmon was at one point in talks to reprise his famous role during the episode, but it did not happen due to scheduling conflicts. Brian Dietzen, who co-wrote the installment, confirmed that just about everything was discussed when it comes to potential returns:

“Every idea under the sun was thrown out [for this episode.] From having every ‘NCIS’ cast member from every spin-off come together in a huge funeral theme… nothing was off the table. Those things can be very logistically difficult obviously, but we wanted to do something special… Michael said he would absolutely love to come and reprise his role as Tony.”

What was particularly smart about how the return for Tony was staged was that it all took place in the morgue, which meant that presumably, a lot of characters from the past could’ve still been at the funeral and we just didn’t see it. This was what was easier for the show to pull logistically and in the end, we do still think that Harmon will come back someday. It is really just a matter of finding the right spot to make it happen — and we tend to think that when it does, it will be more than just a cameo.

Related – See what Michael Weatherly had to say about coming back as Tony

Are you sad that Mark Harmon did not appear in the present during NCIS season 21 episode 2?

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This article was written by Jessica BunBun.