By its nature as a prequel, there are certain events in the NCIS canon that NCIS: Origins needs to either depict or at least acknowledge (though are instances of retconning). One of those coming up is the creation of the Fed 5, the team of law enforcement officers Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Mike Franks, NCIS: New Orleans’ Dwayne Pride, Felix Betts and Dan McLane. The Fed 5’s existence was revealed in the NCIS Season 11 two-parter “Crescent City,” which served as the backdoor pilot for New Orleans, and CinemaBlend received a surprising update on where things stand with Origins including this tie-in.
You may recall that in late May, about a month after the NCIS: Origins Season 1 finale aired, Gina Lucita Monreal confirmed that she and fellow showrunner David J. North were indeed making plans to address the Fed 5, saying that they “always have our eye on big canon.” When I spoke with these two during my interview focused around Origins’ crossover with NCIS, which aired on the 2025 TV schedule earlier this week, I asked if this tie-in will still happen, and Monreal told me:
We will touch on the Fed 5, though not in the way people might think.
That’s… an interesting way to put it. I’m sure I’m not alone in assuming that we’d actually see the Fed 5 being formed on NCIS: Origins, thus allowing for viewers to meet a younger version of Dwayne Pride, previously played by Scott Bakula on NCIS: New Orleans. But Gina Lucita Monreal’s use of “touch on” and saying this chapter of NCIS history will be addressed in a different way has me questioning that assumption. What are they cooking up over there on the Origins writing team?
Now I’m wondering if we won’t actually see the Fed 5 together onscreen during NCIS: Origins. That’s not to say I don’t think a younger Pryde could still be introduced someday, but with this show’s priority being chronicling NIS investigations around the Camp Pendleton area, perhaps Monreal and North feel delving into the Fed 5 would be too much of a pivot. It’s currently the summer of 1992 in Origins, so we’re fast approaching the time when these five men banded together to take down the Privileged Killer.
Maybe this will end up being an offscreen event that’s only mentioned whenever Pryde shows up on NCIS: Origins. That would be easy enough to pull off if the prequel does a time jump at some point in Season 2, taking us from summer 1992 to either winter 1992 or even early 1993. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what’s in store as Origins airs Tuesdays at 9 pm ET on CBS, with new episodes being available to stream the day after with a Paramount+ subscription.
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