'Criminal Minds' Revival Gets Official Title

By Stephen Andrew

The Criminal Minds revival is coming to Paramount+ later this fall, and the new series now has an official title, Criminal Minds: Evolution. According to Deadline, The show will bring back original cast members reprising their roles including Joe Mantegna, A.J. Cook, Kirsten Vangsness, Aisha Tyler, Adam Rodriguez and Paget Brewster. Together, the team will be facing off against franchise newcomer Zach Gilford (Midnight Mass, Good Girls) who plays Elias Voit, "an operations analyst for a global cyber-security firm who has a dark side and obsession with death."

Criminal Minds premiered in 2005 and ran for 15 seasons, eventually concluding in 2020. Fans were devastated to see the series end, but just months after its finale, Paramount+ revealed plans for a 10-episode revival series. There had not been many updates since the announcement, but Paramount+ Original Scripted Series Present Nicole Clemens recently assured fans that the revival series is still happening.

Ahead of its finale season, Criminal Minds showrunner and executive producer Erica Messer spoke about working in the show's writers room and commented on her interest in a series continuation. "Some people love telling procedural stories and especially serial killer stories, so some plan to keep pursuing that," Messer told EW. "Others like myself wanted to step away from it a little bit and look for the light in the world instead of all this darkness. But everybody who's been on this show has an incredible skill set that we can't ignore. It's the skill set of being able to tell a mystery and being able to tell a character-driven procedural. It's been a lot of fun."

Notably, while many of the show's original stars are returning, there are some notable absences. Currently, neither Matthew Gray Gubler nor Shemar Moore are set to come back. Gubler played Dr. Spencer Reid and Moore portrayed FBI Supervisory Special Agent Derek Morgan of the Behavioral Analysis Unit. Both are fan-favorite characters from the show's impressive cast.

These days Moore stars in CBS' S.W.A.T. reboot, which has been a massive hit with audiences. Based on that success, it's perhaps not likely Moore would jump off S.W.A.T. to go back to Criminal Minds, but there is always a chance he could make a guest appearance or cameo. Deadline explained that Gubler previously indicated he was not interested in revisiting the character after Criminal Minds ended. Daniel Henney, who appeared as Matt Simmons on Criminal Minds, is also not returning. However, he has said that he'd be open to making a guest appearance on the revival.

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