‘NCIS: Origins’ Casts Young Dwayne Pride — Who Else Will Appear in That Episode?

NCIS: Origins is about to do a deep dive into a group that we’ve mostly only heard about in the past — the Fed Five — in an upcoming Season 2 episode. As TV Insider previously exclusively revealed, we’re going to meet the young version of Dwayne Pride, played by Scott Bakula across seven seasons of NCIS: New Orleans, and now there’s casting.

Shea Buckner has been cast as the young Pride, TV Insider has confirmed. As we previously reported, he’s just slated to guest star in one episode. This Pride, a former Sheriff’s Deputy, is, like Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Austin Stowell on Origins, Mark Harmon on NCIS), a probie when we meet him, out of the NIS Panama Office. He has a history with Gibbs, and the two must resolve their past tension as they go undercover on a case.

“One of the special things about NCIS: Origins is being able to explore the early days of so many beloved characters from the franchise. We’re excited to go back in time and meet the 1990’s version of New Orleans’ pride and joy, the legendary Special Agent Dwayne Pride, and learn more about his history with Gibbs,” co-showrunners and executive producers Gina Lucita Monreal and David J. North told TV Insider.

The Fed Five, which existed until 1994, was explored in the two-part backdoor pilot of NCIS Season 11 for New Orleans. Gibbs and Pride were the rookies, with Mike Franks (Kyle Schmid on the prequel, Muse Watson on the mothership), Dan McLane, and Felix Betts (Stuart Margolin) rounding out the team. That two-parter explored the truth about the Privileged Killer, whom they’d been celebrating for putting away (there was more to it, as was revealed).

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With young Pride coming in and ’90s versions of Gibbs and Franks already part of Origins, this upcoming episode is also slated to introduce versions of McClane and Betts back then, according to Deadline, which also has character descriptions.

This version of McLane — his death kicked off that NCIS two-parter — is in his late 40s, “smart, authoritative, confident, with an old school masculine energy. He works out of the NIS Panama office and is called in by the San Diego team to lead a joint task force aimed at stopping a stolen weapons ring.” Meanwhile, Betts, whom Gibbs and Pride visited on NCIS, is in his 40s and “a buttoned-up, likable and exuberant auditor and ‘paper-trail genius’ from the Los Angeles NIS office, who is brought in to help a new task force. His superpower is sifting through mountains of bureaucratic paperwork, finding patterns that help solve cases.”

In addition to exploring the Fed Five, the episode is also likely to show just why Gibbs and Pride, who knew each other before this upcoming encounter, go from having past tension to fondly greeting each other with “brother” in the present day (of 2014).

What’s your first reaction to the young Pride casting? What are you hoping to see from this upcoming episode? Let us know in the comments section below.

NCIS: Origins, Tuesdays, 9/8c, CBS