NCIS: Origins: Adam Campbell's Young Ducky Will Return In Season 3 — What Brings The Medical Examiner Back?
Good news, "NCIS: Origins" fans: Young Ducky (played by Adam Campbell) is returning to the prequel in Season 3.
"NCIS: Origins" star Mariel Molino posted a video of the beloved medical examiner on set of the CBS drama on Monday evening, and his return as a recurring character was confirmed to TVLine by showrunner David J. North.
"I'm really excited about it," North told TVLine, adding that Young Ducky's presence in Season 3 will allow fans to see how the close bond formed between Mark Harmon's Gibbs and David McCallum's Ducky came to be on "NCIS."
Campbell appeared in two Season 2 episodes of "NCIS: Origins," but his storyline was wrapped in each with a neat bow — there were no obvious, ongoing storylines to hint at a possible return to Pendleton. So what exactly brings Young Ducky back into mix in Season 3?
North couldn't reveal too much, but he did cryptically tease: "Let's just say he comes into a case this year in a way that he hasn't in his previous two episodes ... he sort of just ends up popping up."
Instagram/Mariel Molino
Young Ducky first appeared on NCIS: Origins in Season 2
Adam Campbell, who appeared on "NCIS" in flashbacks as a young Donald "Ducky" Mallard, made his "NCIS: Origins" debut in Season 2, Episode 3, which served as a tribute to the late David McCallum.
The episode — which is named after McCallum's 1966 release "The Edge" — picks up when Ducky, a liaison from D.C. headquarters and an old acquaintance of Gibbs', arrives as Pendleton to evaluate whether they need an in-house medical examiner.
Though the NIS team was skeptical of his visit at first, it doesn't take long for them to warm up to Ducky. He helped Lala come to terms with her brain injury, he treated some of Franks' physical and emotional wounds, and he gifted Gibbs a ship in a bottle, prompting the probie to head home and revisit his old boat-building hobby from childhood.
Campbell returned later that season, to help prove Dr. Tango's (Julian Black Antelope) innocence after he is arrested for stealing human remains from a national park.
What are you hoping to see from Young Ducky in "NCIS: Origins" Season 3? And what are your predictions for the mysterious circumstances that leads to his "popping up"?