Alden Parker (Gary Cole) had a near-impossible task. He was forced to come in and take over for Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon), and he managed to pull it off. Parker has become a beloved face within the NCIS franchise, and helped the show to survive and thrive in the wake of Gibbs' departure.
Parker may be a familar presence on NCIS by this point, but there's still plenty that we don't know about the character. That's going to change, somewhat, in 2025. NCIS executive producer Steven D. Binder told TV Insider that the show's winter return will bring it some crucial information about the character's past.
Parker's family backstory will be fleshed out in 2025
"We’re going to take you through this and get you to the place where we’re going," Binder explained. "But it’s a really interesting sort of messed up history that Parker has and that we don’t want to blow all in one episode." The executive producer noted that it took several seasons for fans to learn about Gibbs' backstory, and is employing a similar strategy here.
There have been glimpses of the traumas that Parker has experienced, both as an adult and a child, like when he saw a vision of his mother during the season 21 finale. Binder told the outlet that there's a lot that the character has yet to find out about his family, though. And a lot that he thinks he knows, but will learn is actually untrue.
The character will make shocking discoveries
"What is going to trigger Parker is he’s going to go dig into some family lore and find out it’s not what he had been told," Binder revealed. "He has a memory of events and then there were the events that his father told him and then there are the events that actually happened."
The concept of slowly rolling out backstory about a main character clearly worked with Gibbs, but Gary Cole has been adamant throughout his NCIS tenure that his character differs from Gibbs in a few crucial ways. If Gibbs was the stern father, Cole considers Parker to be the "crazy uncle."
"This guy was the crazy uncle," the actor told Cinemablend. "Or just the whoever that even though he's got the title of leader of the team, he's only using the authority when it's necessary or just for coordination." The distinction has been crucial thus far, so we hope it's maintained as we learn more about Parker in the new year.