Mark Harmon ‘Still On the Fence’ About ‘NCIS’ Return

Will he or won’t he? Mark Harmon left the door open for his character, Special Agent Gibbs, to return to NCIS. Now insiders are saying his flip-flopping about rejoining the CBS show is driving his former castmates batty! “Mark’s been teasing a return to the show and everyone wanted him back,” an insider tells Closer. Then the 71-year-old got sidetracked by his new WWII book, Ghosts of Honolulu, about the first Japanese American Office of Naval Intelligence, and started to waver. “He’s still on the fence when it comes to going back to the grind,” says the insider. “People wish he would stop getting them excited only to let them down.”

One person who hopes Mark will stick with his exec-producing duties and stay off-screen: Wilmer Valderrama, whose profile on the series has grown since the actor’s 2018 departure. “Wilmer has nothing personal against Mark, but he wouldn’t mind if he never came back,” adds the insider. “This has been Wilmer’s time to shine and he feels like he’s finally a main star, not a supporting player.”