By Douglas Helm
| Published 1 hour ago

Video game adaptations have come a long, long way, with titles like The Last of Us and Arcane receiving widespread critical praise. Still, it’s fun to go back to the dark days of video game adaptations, like 1999’s Wing Commander, which was loosely based on the game series of the same name.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to revisit these films HD versions can’t be found on streaming services.

Wing Commander never received a 4K restoration. In short, there’s really not a great way to watch the film on modern TVs. But it’s not entirely surprising that this movie isn’t getting a lot of love because it’s pretty terrible.

Wing Commander follows an interstellar war between two factions known as the Terran Confederation and the cat-like Kilrathi Empire. A young crew ends up being the last hope for Earth after finding a device that allows them to intercept the Kilrathi invasion. A young team of fighter pilots is forced to hold off the Kilrathi until reinforcements arrive.

Wing Commander has a pretty decent cast that includes Freddie Prinze Jr, Matthew Lillard, Saffron Burrows, Tcheky Karyo, Jurgen Prochnow, David Suchet, and David Warner. Also, Chris Roberts, the creator of the video game series, directed the film. Unfortunately, having these elements in place did not equate to a good movie.

Wing Commander was a massive critical and commercial failure, only making a measly $11.6 million at the box office. This makes it easily the worst film that Freddie Prinze Jr. and Matthew Lillard ever starred in together. Before Wing Commander, the two starred in She’s All That and would later star in both the live-action Scooby-Doo films and the movie Summer Catch.

It’s not hard to imagine that there is a better version of the Wing Commander movie out there, but some mistakes were definitely made along the way during production. For one, Roberts decided to make the most of the film’s budget and shoot most of the movie in the interiors of the spaceships, which takes away some of the space-opera grandeur you expect from cosmic dogfights.  Also, the film sadly missed out on having some of the voice actors from the video game series.

The Wing Commander movie was a prequel, so it was decided that Mark Hamill was too old to reprise his role from the games. Also, Malcolm McDowell plays Admiral Tolwyn in the game, but he had scheduling conflicts that prevented him from appearing in the movie. Finally, the production was rushed because the studios wanted to get the movie out before Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace came out and destroyed any hope of competing space movies to make money at the box office that year.

In the end, Wing Commander ended up being a disaster, no matter how you slice it. Still, sometimes, it’s fun to revisit terrible movies and see how bad they really were. Unfortunately, the movie isn’t available legally on most streaming services, and it’s definitely not out there in HD.

Justin Hartley‘s newest Tracker case finds Colter Shaw helping Paradise’s Jon Beavers look for his missing son.

In Us Weekly‘s exclusive clip from the Sunday, March 29, episode of the hit CBS series, Colter (Hartley) helps James (Beavers) up after he gets beat up. He then asks Sylvia what she knows about the boy’s disappearance.

“His son is missing, we are looking for him. He disappeared from the science center this morning,” Colter says. “This is his son, Alex. He is the same age as your older son. We are looking for the truth.”

James, meanwhile, jumps in to ask why Sylvia left “before the police had a chance to question” her. Sylvia denies taking the boy while defending how her past led to her losing custody of her own kids.

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Justin Hartley‘s CBS series Tracker has won over its audience because of the intriguing cases — and the impressive guest stars. Tracker, which premiered in February 2024, is centered around a survivalist named Colter (Hartley) who travels the country helping people and law enforcement tackle a variety of mysteries. As the series unfolds, viewers learn […]

According to the official synopsis, Tracker‘s newest case is about how “when a young boy disappears during a school field trip at the aquarium, Colter must navigate a volatile father’s desperation to find his son.”

Beavers’ appearance on Tracker comes after his scene-stealing performance as Billy on Hulu’s Paradise. His is one of many high-profile cameos on Hartley’s show, which follows a survivalist who travels the country helping people and law enforcement tackle a variety of mysteries.

Hartley, 49, who is also an executive producer on the show, previously hinted at how far the show will push his character.

“I just love that when you watch a show like that and you tune into season 1 and then you tune into the last season, you see the development of the character and you go, ‘Wait a minute, are they playing different roles?’ But then if you watch it throughout the years, you experience those things with the characters,” he told TV Insider in September 2024. “As competent and confident as Colter is, I don’t at all think for a second that he doesn’t have a ton to learn, especially about himself and his family and all that.”

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Hartley continued: “Going forward, I think that will be how the show lives on a long runway, is that we keep developing this character and he becomes better at what he’s doing. He’s a restless man, and for an audience member, at least shows that I love to watch, you love to see that growth of a character and we have that.”

The actor also warned that the character could die in the future.

“It’s important to keep upping the stakes. I like being Colter as a hero, finding people and all that. I also really like seeing him in a suspenseful thriller and a dangerous situation,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in April 2025. “I don’t want our audience to forget that this man is mortal, he’s not a superhero. He can die! The things he is doing are very very dangerous.”

Tracker airs on CBS Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.

Laura Dern is saying what a lot of actresses have been thinking for years, and she’s not holding back. The Oscar winner, who has been making the rounds promoting her latest film, “Is This Thing On?,” reuniting with co-star Will Arnett, and even teaming back up with “Jurassic Park” icons Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum for a Super Bowl ad, is opening up about Hollywood’s ongoing obsession with youth, calling attention to the lack of meaningful roles for older women while embracing aging as something powerful, not something to hide.

At the same time, Laura Dern is navigating a deeply personal chapter, choosing to slow down her schedule as she mourns the loss of her mother, actress Diane Ladd, and raises awareness for the disease that took her life.

Laura Dern Redefines What’s Sexy

Dern also opened up about how her understanding of confidence and sexuality has evolved over time.

“You know, it’s interesting: What they think you want to explore as a female actor is so bizarre,” she told AARP’s Movies for Grownups. “Like to explore sexuality at 20 in my case meant, ‘Tell me who you want me to be, or what you think is sexy or pretty, and I’ll try to mimic that in a film. I don’t know my own self or my own sexuality yet.’”

She added, “But at 50, it’s like, ‘This is what’s interesting. This is what’s sexy. That’s what’s unattractive. This is what feels human.’ Vulnerability is sexuality.”

Grown-Up Love Stories Bring A Different Kind Of Heat

According to Dern, intimacy later in life carries a different kind of power, one that Hollywood doesn’t often showcase.

“When [Will Arnett and I] were reading the scene in ‘Is This Thing On?’ where we were talking about what we didn’t like in the relationship or in each other, and Bradley Cooper, our director, was like, ‘That scene was so sexy.’ And I just loved that,” she said.

“I loved that this filmmaker saw communication as hot and intimacy as erotic,” the actress added. “Because it’s not what you get to see in movies, and it only worked because it’s about a marriage of 26 years. You know, it’s not about new infatuation.”

Laura Dern Calls Out Hollywood’s Lack Of Stories About Aging

While she embraces this stage of life, Dern didn’t hold back when addressing what she sees as a major gap in the industry.

“My mom would always say that ageism when you look great isn’t quite as overt, but she’s like, ‘How many movies do we have of 80-year-olds?’” she said before thanking Michael Haneke, the 83-year-old Austrian screenwriter and director of 2012’s Oscar-winning “Amour,” among others.

“We have them more. But it’s very rare to see films about what I’ve just walked through with my mother and her journey with IPF,” she said. “Where are those stories? Where are the love stories between us and our parents in cinema, in television?”

Dern Gets Real About Life’s Hardest Truths

Dern ended on a deeply reflective note, pointing out how little society and Hollywood prepare people for the realities of aging.

“We all know what it’s like to be a kid, but we don’t know how to grow old,” she said. “And we don’t know how to find community around it, and how to talk about our fear of disease, of losing life, of losing loved ones. It’s pretty amazing in a community of storytellers that there are hardly any stories about that, and yet it’s inescapable for us all to face.”

Laura Dern Teases What’s Next In Her Career

Even as she takes time to reflect and reset, Laura Dern made it clear she’s far from slowing down. Looking ahead, the actress revealed she has several exciting projects in the works, including a collaboration with longtime friend and co-star Nicole Kidman.

“There are a couple of projects that Nicole Kidman and I have, a film we’re excited about that’s in development, and another show that I’m working hard at right now,” Dern shared.

While she’s intentionally taking a moment for herself, she reassured fans there’s plenty to look forward to. “So there are exciting things to come,” she said. “But I’m taking a little time and then will get back to work.”

When it comes to relationships, Martha Stewart knows exactly what she wants, and she is not shy about saying it.

The businesswoman has been linked to several men since her split from ex-husband Andrew Stewart, including a past romance with Welsh actor Anthony Hopkins. 

With years of dating experience under her belt, Stewart has a clear picture of her ideal partner.

Martha Stewart Details Her Ideal Man Is One With Lots Of Money 

The lifestyle mogul considers herself a prize and expects the same from a partner. When asked about the features her man should possess, Martha revealed she looks for a mix of physical appeal and personality.

Speaking to PEOPLE Magazine, Stewart said there are “lots of things” she looks for. “Nice-looking, bald or not bald, I don’t care. If they have a nice-shaped head, it’s fine,” she explained. The entrepreneur further listed being “funny” and “smart” along with features like a nice smile and good teeth.

For Stewart, what would be a welcome bonus is if the man were rich. Although she is currently single and not dating as she does not have that time, Stewart has previously bragged that she is a “catch,” having valuable qualities that appeal to a partner. 

“I know how to cook, I know how to clean, I know how to keep a house — those are all very homemaker skills,” she said. 

Martha Stewart Admitted To Cheating In Her Marriage With Andrew Stewart

As Stewart brags about being a full-on spec and wanting similar attributes from the opposite sex, she has also made shocking revelations about her actions in her former marriage to Andrew Stewart. 

The Blast previously reported that in her 2024 Netflix documentary “Martha,” which detailed the events of her life, she confessed to cheating on her ex-husband. The confession came when she was advising young women about leaving their marital home if their partners ever cheated on them. 

However, a producer quickly pointed out the contradiction, asking, “Didn’t you have an affair early on?” Stewart acknowledged it, replying, “Yeah, but I don’t think Andy ever knew about that.”

The ‘Martha Stewart Show’ Star Said She Had No Stress Covering Up Her Infidelity 

Following her admission, the media personality went on to reveal more about her affair during a conversation with businessman Lee Brian Schrager at the celebration of her 100th book. 

According to The Blast, the 84-year-old author admitted that keeping it a secret was “very easy,” noting that her husband’s lack of awareness made it simpler.

When Schrager jokingly asked how she managed to keep it hidden for so long, even suggesting it could be the theme of her next book, Stewart simply replied: “You have to be circumspect.”

Martha and Andrew tied the knot in 1961 and welcomed their daughter Alexis in 1965. After years of strain, the couple separated in 1987 and finalized their divorce in 1990.

Andrew Stewart Reportedly Cried Out About Hurtful Behavior In His Union With Martha 

As Martha revisited her past, including her marriage to Andrew, it appeared to reopen old wounds for him, prompting a response from both Andrew and his current wife, Shyla Stewart.

In the documentary, Martha alleged that Andrew had “quite a few girlfriends” during their relationship and admitted she found it difficult to leave at the time. However, the claim did not sit well with Andrew and Shyla, who pushed back against the portrayal.

Per The Blast, Shyla took to Facebook on their behalf, criticizing Martha for revisiting their long-ended relationship decades later. She went further, describing Andrew’s and Martha’s union as “painful and abusive,” unlike the “joy-filled” one he now shared with her.  

She ended by wishing everyone, including Martha, the chance to experience deep, fulfilling love and the peace that comes with it.

Martha Stewart Made A Full-Circle Return To The NYSE

Beyond her personal life, Stewart recently marked a major milestone with a return to the New York Stock Exchange, 24 years after her dramatic exit.

As The Blast reported, last month, she joined Miracle-Gro CFO Mark Scheiwer to ring the closing bell, marking the company’s 30th anniversary. She also signed the guest book alongside NYSE Vice President Chris Taylor.

The moment was memorable for Stewart as she was forced to resign from the NYSE board in 2002. She was later indicted in 2003 and convicted in 2004 on felony charges related to insider trading.

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce can’t help but give each other the warm fuzzies.

Swift and Kelce began dating in summer 2023 before the singer attended her first Kansas City Chiefs game that fall. Swift later revealed that she and Kelce connected after he went to her Eras Tour stop in Missouri and wanted to give her a friendship bracelet with his number on it.

“We actually had a significant amount of time that no one knew, which I’m grateful for, because we got to get to know each other,” she shared in her December 2023 TIME Person of the Year cover story. “By the time I went to that first game, we were a couple. I think some people think that they saw our first date at that game? We would never be psychotic enough to hard launch a first date.”

Swift and Kelce’s romance quickly took the world by storm as fans and other stars became enamored with their sweet love story. Since going public with their relationship, the couple have made each other blush on multiple occasions.

Keep scrolling to see Swift and Kelce’s blush-worthy moments and their sweetest quotes about one another:

Taylor’s 1st Game

Swift made her Chiefs Kingdom debut in September 2023 when the Chiefs faced off against the Chicago Bears. The Grammy winner sat in a suite with Travis’ mom, Donna Kelce, to take in the game. Travis’ teammate James Winchester shared that he noticed that the tight end was blushing over having Swift cheer him on.

“I walked up to Trav. I just said, ‘Hey, man, that’s cool she’s here.’ He’s like, ‘What do you mean? Did they put her up on the jumbotron or something?’ I’m like, ‘No, Jay just told me. That’s awesome, man, good for you,’” Winchester recalled during a May episode of the “Like a Farmer” podcast. “He’s just kind of smiling and, you know, blushing.”

Big Brother Teasing

After Travis and Swift made headlines following that first game, Travis’ big bro, Jason Kelce, couldn’t help but tease him over Swift putting him “on the map.”

“I just thought it was awesome that everybody in the suite had nothing but great things to say about her. The friends and family. She looked amazing,” he gushed during the brothers’ “New Heights” podcast. “And on top of that, the day went perfect for Chiefs fans. We script it all, ladies and gentlemen. It was absolutely electric.”

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‘Karma’ Shout-Out

When Travis had a bye week in November 2023, he jetted off to Buenos Aires to catch Swift’s Eras Tour concert. Travis was in the audience with Taylor’s dad, Scott Swift, and watched the show from the VIP booth. During the show’s finale, Taylor changed the lyrics to her finale song, “Karma,” from “guy on the screen,” which was a reference to her ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn, to “guy on the Chiefs.”

Fans in attendance captured Travis’ reaction to the surprise which left him turning red and covering his face. Scott went to give the football player a high-five, but Travis was so stunned he missed the moment.

Travis opened up about the experience on his and Jason’s podcast and admitted he was “shocked” by the shout-out. He also apologized to Taylor’s dad for leaving him hanging.

“Mr. Swift, I apologize, big guy,” Travis said. “I never miss a high-five, too, big high-five guy. It’s the most electric thing you could do at an event.”

Making Taylor an ‘Honest Woman’

In June 2024, Travis attended the Big Slick Celebrity Weekend charity event in Kansas City. While at the event he chatted with Jason Sudeikis, who teased the football player about his potential future with Taylor.

“Hey, Travis, real talk. It’s just us guys here. When are you gonna make an honest woman out of [her]?” Sudeikis jokingly asked before referring to Harrison Butker’s controversial graduation speech about women choosing to be homemakers over pursuing a career. “Taylor doesn’t need to be working anymore. And again, I know your kicker agrees with me.”

Travis laughed and smiled at the joke before he sarcastically replied, “Guys, you’re really pushing it.”

Falling for the Boy on the Football Team

During the Lyon, France, stop of her Eras Tour, Taylor performed “Fifteen” as one of the night’s secret songs. The Fearless track, which dropped in 2008, includes the line, “In your life, you’ll do things greater than dating the boy on the football team.” When Swift belted the lyrics out, she realized the irony of her words, leaving her smiling and blushing as the crowd went wild.

The Best Cooking Partners

During Travis’ June 2024 Chiefs press conference, he was asked about his favorite meals to cook with Taylor.

“I respect that question, but I’m gonna keep that one to myself,” he said, blushing and smiling. “I thoroughly enjoy cooking with her, so it’s something I’d rather keep personal.”

At the very end of the press conference, Travis quipped that the pop star “makes a great Pop-Tart and cinnamon roll.”

Taking the Stage

Travis attended Taylor’s London Eras Tour concerts in June 2024 — and ended up on stage. The singer threw a fake tantrum in between “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” and “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” during the Tortured Poets Department section of her show every night. For her third night at Wembley Stadium, Travis joined her dancers on stage.

After their rehearsed skit, Travis stood behind his girlfriend, blushing with a giant smile on his face as she began the song.

Appreciating the Praise

When Adam Sandler appeared on an August 2024 episode of “New Heights,” he couldn’t stop gushing over Taylor. “By the way, what a girl,” he told Travis, who referred to his girlfriend as the “best performer out here.”

Sandler went on to explain how significant Taylor is to his family, explaining that his two daughters — Sadie and Sunny — are big fans. “I love listening to her in the car. I love what she had to say, every message, every melody, the production, how cool she was,” he said. “What she meant to young girls, what she means to women. What she means to guys doing the right thing in life.”

Travis thanked Sandler for his kind words, even noting that Taylor was “so grateful” to see the actor and his daughters at the October 2023 premiere of her Eras Tour concert film. “You got me sweatin’ over here,” Travis teased.

Never Been Happier

“I’m enjoying all aspects of life, that’s for damn sure,” Travis said on the Stephen A. Smith Show in January 2025. “Me and Taylor are happy and I couldn’t be happier to have that confidence and that comfort off the field and all the support I could ever ask for in the stadium.”

He added, “I think, personally, the beauty of being in a very strong relationship is that you get that support to be able to come in and focus on your craft, focus on being the best version of you. That’s why I wanted to be at [her] concerts supporting her and being there for her, making sure she feels comfortable and supported in everything she’s doing in life.”

Sealing Her Podcast Appearance With a Kiss

Taylor joined Travis and Jason for an August 2025 episode of the brothers’ “New Heights” podcast, where she gushed over their relationship and shared a sweet smooch with her boyfriend.

“This podcast has done a lot for me,” Swift teased. “This podcast got me a boyfriend ever since Travis decided to use it as his personal dating app two years ago.”

Why Their Relationship Works

Taylor had nothing but positive things to say about Travis in her Disney+ docuseries, The End of an Era, which chronicled his June 2024 cameo on stage at The Eras Tour. “The way that he just comes to life when the lights are the brightest — people talk about that all the time with him. They’re like, ‘The moment’s never too big for Travis,’” she explained. “The lights are never too bright for Travis. As a player, he can, like, slow down time in the most stressful moments, and that’s exactly what we saw on stage. He got out there and was the most charming, delightful performer you could ever be on the stage with. … He’s just so magically entertaining.”

She went on to note that the duo get along so well because they take similar approaches to their careers, which require them to be away from each other for long periods of time. “Somehow there’s been this dynamic shift with Travis, because it’s shocking how many similarities we have towards our jobs and how we view them and how we view each other,” she said. “We both have jobs where we both go out in NFL stadiums and we entertain people for three and a half hours. His with considerably more violence than mine, but he’s not in heels. But it’s our passion. We’ve been chasing this since we were little kids. So, I don’t think I ever thought I’d meet a guy who had that same trajectory. And I’ve realized with this person in my life that just was the right fit for me, you can have the two passions coexist and they actually fuel each other. Ultimately, we love cheering each other on. That’s rad.”

She then marveled at the fact that fans started wearing his jersey to her Eras Tour shows, saying she couldn’t have ever imagined such an outcome when the tour began in March 2023.

“I swear to God, it’s like every 12th person has his jersey on. The fans absolutely love Travis, and I think it’s ’cause they can tell that he loves them too and he just kind of loves all people,” she said before calling their romance “the most meaningful relationship” of her life. “Travis is just very comfortable with, conceptually speaking, a big life, because he has one. And it’s not one that he has reluctantly, he’s very comfortable with it. I think ultimately it’s the way he treats me, it’s very clear. And I think that’s one of the reasons why the fans are so in love with him. ‘Cause you should be, you know? He’s very lovable.”

Finding The One

In the sixth episode of The End of an Era, Taylor read a card that Travis sent her with flowers ahead of her last few Eras shows in Vancouver. “So many unbelievable memories on this tour, but my favorite one is seeing you in concert for the first time, being mesmerized and swept off my feet by a woman who doesn’t even know me,” he wrote. “I selfishly say thank you for creating this legendary tour and to [tour manager] Robert [Allen] for making you stop through Kansas City, Missouri. That night two in KC was the beginning of me meeting the love of my life.”

Travis Kelce Brings the Vibes

Taylor and Travis made their awards show debut at the iHeartRadio Music Awards in 2026, where the “Opalite” singer gave her man a sweet shout-out in her acceptance speech for Best Pop Album.

“This album probably also feels very happy and confident and free because that’s the way that I get to feel every single day of my life because of my fiancé, who is here tonight,” she told the crowd. “So, thanks for the vibes.”

Not every sci-fi movie needs a giant space battle or a world-ending twist to leave a mark. Some of them get under your skin in quieter ways, building tension through ideas, emotion, and the kind of mystery that keeps pulling you deeper the longer you sit with it. That is a huge part of why Arrival hit so hard when it landed in 2016. It looked like a first-contact thriller on the surface, but it turned into something much more moving and much stranger than that.

Now, Denis Villeneuve’s acclaimed sci-fi drama is heading to Paramount+ on April 1, giving the streamer one of the strongest genre additions in its next wave of library titles. The film remains one of the director’s most admired works, arriving just before he made the leap to even bigger sci-fi worlds with Blade Runner 2049 and Dune. For a lot of fans, though, Arrival is still the one that lingers the most.

Based on Ted Chiang’s Story of Your Life, the film follows linguist Louise Banks as she is brought in to communicate with mysterious alien visitors who have appeared around the globe. What begins as an exercise in translation quickly becomes something far more personal and unnerving, as Louise starts to understand that language itself may be reshaping how she experiences time. It is a gorgeous, patient, deeply emotional movie that trusts the audience to keep up. The cast includes Amy Adams as Louise Banks, Jeremy Renner as Ian Donnelly, Forest Whitaker as Colonel Weber, Michael Stuhlbarg as Agent Halpern, and Tzi Ma as General Shang.

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How Good Is ‘Arrival’?

Collider’s review stated that Arrival is the film Denis Villeneuve had been building toward — a stunning blend of visual storytelling, emotional depth, and big ideas that finally comes together into something truly special. What makes Arrival truly work, though, is how everything comes together. The visuals, the performances, the score — all of it serves a story that feels both intimate and expansive. It’s a film that rewards patience and invites multiple viewings.

The maintained feeling of discovery is where Villeneuve deserves so much applause. Arrival is very exciting because it is a sci-fi about ideas and interpersonal communication. Even when it engages with a type of conflict that we’re familiar with, Villeneuve only uses sound and a detached viewing from above. We are so attached to the researchers and their methods, we want them to be able to do all their work devoid of violent conflict. Arrival makes us care about each discovery and less about what conflict might impede it. It’s truly a game-changer for modern science fiction.

Arrival will arrive on Paramount+ on April 1.

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Release Date

November 11, 2016

Runtime

116 minutes

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Director

Denis Villeneuve

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Writers

Eric Heisserer

Producers

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Aaron Ryder, David Linde, Karen Lunder, Shawn Levy, Dan Levine, Dan Cohen

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Speaking with Collider ahead of NCIS’ milestone 500th episode, Sean Murray looked back on his decades-long run as Timothy McGee as part of our retrospective series, Collider Rewind. Originally introduced as a one-off guest character in Season 1, McGee quickly became a core part of the team, with Murray officially joining as a series regular in Season 2. Over the years, the character has grown from a socially awkward “probie” into one of the show’s most trusted agents — and one of its last remaining links to the early days of the series.

During our conversation, Murray reflected on how NCIS has managed to stay relevant for more than two decades, pointing to its character-driven storytelling and the deep connection audiences have built with the team over time. He also spoke about watching McGee evolve across the series, the organic moments that helped shape the show — from on-set improvisation to fan-favorite running gags — and what it’s been like to help guide new cast members as one of the show’s longest-tenured stars. Read on for the full conversation.

COLLIDER: With the 500th episode of NCIS, it’s now surpassing shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Family Guy, and even classics like Bonanza. Being on the show, what is it that you found to be the reason why the show has been such a mainstay for audiences around the world?

SEAN MURRAY: It’s a good question. We were something new when we started. I think the character-driven procedural, the walk-the-line of comedy and drama was sort of a new thing when we started. At least, that’s how I recall. We found our thing, and over the years, it’s continued. A lot of people have been a part of this world. We’ve been incredibly fortunate with the people that have passed through NCIS who were still there, who were a part of it, in front of the camera, behind the camera. We’ve actually got quite a few people on this production, 23 years later here, who grew up doing the show, that had done the show from the beginning, like in my case in front of the camera, but a lot of people behind the camera. Everyone is very protective over our thing.

I get asked this question a lot, obviously, and I never have a great answer for it. I can tell you that. I never do. Even when I try to think about something to say, it always kind of eludes me. But it’s a fun show, and it’s got great characters. There’s also the added thing of when you have characters who have been established and have years of history that you’ve seen, people become really invested in some of these characters, and they become like a family for a lot of people. There are people who have grown up with us, and all kinds of stuff. So, it’s pretty cool. It’s so fortunate, that’s for sure.

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How Sean Murray Became an ‘NCIS’ Star

Image via CBS

And I’m one of those people. I’ve been a fan of NCIS since JAG and the backdoor pilot, and I remember you were on JAG as Danny Walden.

MURRAY: Oh, nice! That’s right.

What was the process for you coming from JAG into NCIS? Was it an audition process, or did they just love your performance in JAG and want to find a way to bring you into the new world?

MURRAY: Well, Don Bellisario, who ran JAG, I worked for a number of times and did a couple of episodes for him. My mother was actually married to Don, so that’s how I met Don.

I did not know that!

MURRAY: This is true. They got married when I was maybe in my early 20s. So, that’s how I met Don. Anyway, I did a couple of roles on JAG. I did Danny Walden, and I think I did a character who was an ensign in an earlier episode of JAG.

So actually, when NCIS was happening, the character of McGee was a one-shot guest star that was actually written and came up with by Frank Cardea and George Schenck, who were two of the writers over at NCIS. They created McGee in their script, who was, again, a one-time character. Anyway, we came, we did it. I think “Sub Rosa” was the name of the episode that was the fifth or sixth show in Season 1, and it was great. We had a really fun time together. It all gelled well. My character didn’t end up dead or in jail or something at the end. Anytime you do a guest star, you’re hopeful about that.

A couple of episodes later, if I recall, they were three minutes short on an edit on an episode, so they had to come up with some material to make up a C-story, and someone said, “Let’s bring back McGee, and we’ll put him with Tony. They were fun together, so we’ll have something with them, and we’ll do something there.” So McGee appeared once more, and this was a couple of episodes down the road there, and from that point on, McGee was just slowly a part of the thing and appeared more and more.

I remember we got to an episode, I think maybe, somewhere between [episodes] 18, 19, or 20 in Season 1, which I believe was called “Dead Man Talking,” and it was a stakeout episode. We were working on shifts, me and Tony, and Sasha Alexander’s character and [Mark] Harmon’s character, and I remember feeling like we were onto something cool. A lot of the initial things that informed a lot of the beats and tone of the show were starting to pop up. They were starting to show up, so we could feel it. There was something there. And then the characters being a little less one-dimensional, things were popping, and we could just feel something coming together. I just remember that episode specifically, “Dead Man Talking,” as a time when it’s like, “Okay, this is informing something that we’re doing.”

And then they brought you back for Season 2, and the rest was history.

MURRAY: Yeah, brought me back for Season 2. At the beginning of Season 2, I became a full-fledged member of the team, which was great. That was the early days of the original Probie.

How Sean Murray Has Become ‘NCIS’ Longest-Lasting Cast Member

And now you’re kind of like the last of the “old guard” from that era of the show. What has it been like for you evolving and getting to be the face that newcomers look to for guidance on what it means to be part of NCIS?

MURRAY: It’s pretty cool. I haven’t gotten bored for two decades playing this character, and part of the reason is the characters have always been changing and evolving. That’s something we’ve always been conscious of doing from early on. Something that I would say to some of our writers early was that I didn’t want McGee to be like Baby Maggie Simpson and just revert to the same age every week. Him growing [up] was going to be part of the fun of that character, this very schooled, informed character who was extremely socially awkward and didn’t know how to handle a lot of things when it came to everything that comes with that job. The academic part of it, he had no problem, but everything else came over the years. Gibbs showed him how to run interrogations and things like that. He became a very good interrogator, McGee, and he just got better in the field and more confident.

As things went on, the different times when he finds himself in leadership roles, and different iterations of the team, I haven’t gotten bored. I’ve never felt like I’m doing the same old thing, which is nice. I don’t think any of us do. I don’t think any of us feel like we’re just hitting the light switch and then going, “Okay, here we are. I’m going to be Torres, and I’ll be McGee.” We’re always pushing for something to try and make it better.

The series has always been reinventing itself over the years with new team members, new cases. It’s always fresh, even for audiences. I was thinking about all of the nicknames that McGee’s had over the years, the McNicknames. I think of McGoo because people always call me Moogie, and it always gelled.

MURRAY: [Laughs] So that one rings true a little bit.

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Do you have any favorite ones that he’s been called?

MURRAY: Oh, I’ve got my favorite. I remember when [Michael] Weatherly came up with it, too. I think my favorite is probably Probie-Wan Kenobi.

That’s a good one.

MURRAY: Probie-Wan is pretty sweet. It kind of hits the mark just perfect.

There’s One Thing Sean Murray Still Wants Out of ‘NCIS’

Image via Sonja Flemming / ©CBS / Courtesy Everett Collection

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What are some of the stories over the years that have stood out to you from NCIS? Are there any that maybe fans have come up to you and talked with you about, or just ones that made you look at something differently, or still ring true for you?

MURRAY: It’s funny because, like you said, we’ve been going for a while with the show, but the show’s changed in so many ways, so I can watch some of the early episodes and be almost shocked by how much things have changed in different ways since. The rhythm of things, the rhythm of the edits, a lot of the character traits that evolved as it came along, as things grew.

McGee’s a fun character. He’s got these quirky little things. One of the storylines that comes up quite a bit with fans is his writing career, the Thom E. Gemcity stuff, and the Deep Six books, where he basically just rips off characters around him and barely renames them and publishes The Adventures of Rick Sorres and Co.

Would you like to see more from that storyline?

MURRAY: I love it! We’ve actually done a lot of these. And what’s cool is that we’ve actually gotten back into it lately. In this past season, we had a really fun episode — I think several into this year. I don’t recall the name of it, but we opened with McGee, and he was doing a reading of his book for fans, and he ends up getting drugged and kidnaped, and it starts a little adventure. But what was so much fun about that episode was we got to spend most of the episode with the characters in his head in his book, as played by our actors that the characters are based on. So, that was really fun. That was a really fun episode, and it was different, too, because we had characters appearing and not appearing. Sometimes we see them, sometimes we don’t. We plan, and sometimes we don’t. So that was kind of new for us, so that was cool. We did some fun, different things in that episode. I love the Thom E. Gemcity stuff.

You need some tie-in novels to get published.

MURRAY: Right? I’m sure we could come up with something. Yeah.

You need to get Paramount on the line to make that happen.

MURRAY: There you go. We’ll put out a series. [Laughs]

There you go! I had read somewhere in preparation for this, I think you broke your wrist filming a scene in an early season. Is that true?

MURRAY: Oh, that was my thumb. It actually was in the opening of the show for a while, where I think there was a car wash stunt. I go through a car wash. I remember Harmon and I filming a part of that sequence where I run through the car wash, and I had on the dress shoes, and I was running on wet, painted cement. We were doing a take, and my feet came out from under me, and I came down on my hand, and my thumb was not in the right position. To this day, I still have limited mobility in my right thumb.

Oh, no! I’m so sorry.

MURRAY: Oh, no. It’s all good. It’s fine. It doesn’t hurt. Hey, I finished the take, though! I jumped up and kept going.

That’s important. That’s your Aragorn breaking his toe in Lord of the Rings moment.

MURRAY: Hey, there you go. Or Leo cutting his hand on the glass in Django Unchained.

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Are there other moments like that, that you think back to, like, “Oh, that made the cut? That moment made the take, and something insane was happening in the midst of it?”

MURRAY: A lot of what I did with Weatherly was insane, I can tell you that. One of the reasons he and I worked well together was that I played his straight man a little bit. Michael was known to say anything except the written dialogue sometimes, so we would go on these adventures together, doing a little bit of ad-libbing, but we’d always come back to the written word, and then go back. I think about that sort of stuff. Why did I start talking about Weatherly in this silly thing? I’m sorry. It’s hard to not think about that when we go down memory lane.

I was rewatching some of those first seasons, and I was thinking, I wonder how much stuff ended up being ad-libbed once everybody got very comfortable with each other, being able to riff and stuff.

MURRAY: Oh, yeah! I remember doing an episode when Michael was just sort of getting on it. He was just figuring out his character and finding out what makes it happen, and he started doing this half-Bill Murray impression at some point in a scene. He was definitely doing his own thing, but inspired by, and I remember they printed the take and we were surprised that they printed it and moved on. Michael and I sat down in our chairs for a minute, and he’s like, “I hope I don’t get fired. I’ll be honest with you.” [Laughs] He was half joking, but I half serious, too, because that’s the way it is. But he was onto something, and we started having a lot of fun there together. That was an adventure with him, for sure. For sure.

Looking back to Season 1, and what we were talking about with how you joined the series, were there other moments throughout the run where some things started happening organically, and the writers started writing to it and developing these stories, like how you obviously were brought in and you kept staying there? Were there other moments like that, where the organicness of a series happened?

MURRAY: It’s hard to sometimes think of specific moments, but there are happy accidents that make this stuff up. Things inspire other things. Sometimes just a scene has given us an idea for a storyline. It’s hard for me, of course, to come up with right now a perfect example of it. I mean, the slapping on the head, that came out of a rehearsal that we did in the squad room with Harmon and Weatherly when Gibbs is trying to get Tony to say something. We were in rehearsal, and Michael was going up, just making a joke about something, so Mark, joking around and in character, gave him this kind of slap upside the back of the head, which, by the way, is something that Harmon worked on very well because he could do it to you without barely even touching you. He was very careful about not wanting to hurt anybody. But that came out of that rehearsal. I guess that’s something that someone had done to him when he was young, being a goofball.

Then that became a huge thing. For years, running around, Michael and I had to get used to people asking to slap us on the heads. So, there’s one right there. Now I’m remembering. Cote de Pablo, with Ziva, she would get her Americanisms wrong or phrases, and if I recall, some of that came out of Cote naturally.

I love that.

MURRAY: Which was great because she’s Chilean, and she would sometimes throw things that weren’t quite right, and that sort of started inspiring some of those Zivaisms.

What a fun character!

MURRAY: Oh my god, yeah.

My last question for you is, what do you think NCIS looks like in another 500 episodes?

MURRAY: Oh, Jesus, well, I’d look gray if I’m still there, if they still let me do my thing there. Wow. That’s a scary thought, another 500. It’s pretty cool, though. We’re proud that we’ve done this, that we’ve made it this far. It’s pretty neat to be up there in the statistics or however you want to say that. It’s just sort of a testament to the fans of the show that we’ve had this longevity and appealed to, luckily, a large amount of people for a long time, and I hope we just continue to do it. If we do another 500, that would be great.

New episodes of NCIS air Tuesdays on CBS and next-day on the Paramount+ app.

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Release Date

September 23, 2003

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Showrunner

Donald P. Bellisario

Directors

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Dennis Smith, Terrence O’Hara, Tony Wharmby, James Whitmore Jr., Thomas J. Wright, Michael Zinberg, Arvin Brown, Rocky Carroll, Diana Valentine, Leslie Libman, Tawnia McKiernan, Colin Bucksey, William Webb, Bethany Rooney, Alrick Riley, Jeff Woolnough, Alan J. Levi, Lionel Coleman, Martha Mitchell, Peter Ellis, Michael Weatherly, Edward Ornelas, Stephen Cragg, Tom Wright

Writers

George Schenck, Frank Cardea, Jesse Stern, John C. Kelley, Jennifer Corbett, Christopher Silber, Reed Steiner, Nicole Mirante-Matthews, Jack Bernstein, Scott J. Jarrett, Matthew R. Jarrett, Kimberly-Rose Wolter, Don McGill, Gil Grant, Frank Military, Nell Scovell, Steven Kriozere, Brian Dietzen, Kate Torgovnick May, Jeff Vlaming, Sydney Mitchel, Katie White, Richard C. Arthur, Laurence Walsh

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  Sean Murray

  Timothy McGee

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  david mccallum

  Dr. Donald ‘Ducky’ Mallard

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