'Criminal Minds: Evolution': Joe Mantegna and Zach Gilford on Rossi and Voit's 'Love-Hate Relationship' as Season 2 Goes More 'In Depth' (Exclusive)

Season 2 of the Paramount+ revival premieres on Thursday, June 6.

By Megan Behnke

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The second season of Criminal Minds: Evolution drops on Thursday, June 6 and stars Joe Mantegna and Zach Gilford spoke to PopCulture.com about the highly-anticipated new episodes. After the first season of the Paramount+ revival saw David Rossi and season-long unsub Elias Voit get under each other's skin on more than a few occasions, especially when Voit held Rossi captive. After creating a network of serial killers, Voit was eventually caught and detained by the FBI, and it was revealed he even knew about the elusive Gold Star.

After it was announced that Gilford will be returning to Evolution, it was hard to predict what Voit will bring to the table for round two. For the upcoming season, he will now be in the BAU's custody and somewhat working alongside them. There is also something much bigger at play, and the BAU will be dealing with a lot, as Gilford shared, "We kind of teased up Gold Star at the end of last season, and it just becomes a much bigger thing than anyone expected." He continued, "What was just a ploy to get Doug Bailey, it turns out to be a much bigger conspiracy, so to speak. And unfortunately for the BAU, the only person that can help them is me. And I use that to my advantage and try to milk every possibility to get myself out of the situation I'm in, which is a jail cell."

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Zach Gilford as Elias Jasper Voit in Criminal Minds: Evolution, episode 1, season 17 streaming on Paramount+, 2024. Photo Credit: Michael Yarish /Paramount+

- Michael Yarish /Paramount+)

Since this is a revival of Criminal Minds, things have been a bit different, which is why the team is now, more or less, working with a serial killer and it sounds like Voit will do everything he can to help himself. Mantegna agreed with the Friday Night Lights alum, saying, "I think it's an apropos name. The show is now called Criminal Minds: Evolution. So, I think what we are doing is evolving. We have the capability now, in this whole streaming platform, to evolve with what we've already done. For so many years on a network television, we have a beginning and middle of an end, and start all over again with something else."

"This way, we're able to really go in depth of the storyline that incorporates a lot of different things, and goes a lot of different directions, and involves a lot of different emotions at a level and the intensity that we can't, we wouldn't normally be able to even do on network television," Mantegna explained. "I think that's... Look, I've liked serializations as I was a kid, and on Saturdays, watch the serialization, like flash forward. I don't think that appeal changes over the years. It just becomes a different version of it."

As previously mentioned, Rossi and Voit have a very complex dynamic, and it's only going to get more complex with the second season. Zach Gilford admitted he felt like he's "kind of this white whale." He shared, "It's a love-hate relationship. It just does not equip me." However, knowing how much of an impact Rossi had on Voit as he grew up reading his books, Gilford said, "As much of a psychopath as he is, he's also kind of a mad genius. And I think for him, getting to get under the skin of, it's not his mentor by any means, it's someone who he looks up to and has studied from afar. I think it's also kind of a self-challenge for Voit, to outsmart Rossi. Not just for his own freedom but also for his own ego."

Related:

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L-R: Joe Mantegna as David Rossi and Paget Brewster as Emily Prentiss in Criminal Minds: Evolution, episode 2, season 17 streaming on Paramount+, 2024. Photo Credit: Michael Yarish /Paramount+

- Michael Yarish /Paramount+)

It should be interesting to see how their dynamic changes with second season because for Joe Mantegna, he loves "the way that relationship has grown, and where it's going, and where it's going to continue to grow during the season. Because I think back to... I directed an episode back in the first season, where we basically introduced Voit and his family, his wife and the kids. And so much of that was like a domestic situation. You really saw that positive side to him. And of course, within it there was those moments of like, wait a minute... On the other hand, he was a dad, with the wife and kids, and lived in suburbia. And so it's nice to be able to see that these characters can ride both sides of the street at different times. Just basically what he says, there's a whole, sometimes a love-hate, respect and anger type of thing that goes on and will continue."

Just going off the looks of the photos for Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2, it will be both entertaining and intriguing. It wouldn't be surprising if Voit and Rossi were to have a bit more complicated relationship this time around, especially following the events of last season, but fans will just have to tune in on Thursday, June 6, when the first two episodes drop on Paramount+. New episodes will then premiere weekly on Thursdays.

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