‘Criminal Minds’ Alum Shares Troubling Update on Future of Announced Revival

Sadly, it seems Criminal Minds fans may have waited in vain for the anticipated revival. Paget Brewster, who played Emily Prentiss as a series regular on Seasons 2-7 and 12-15 as well as a few guest spots in Seasons 9 and 11, revealed via Twitter that the reunion everyone has been waiting for may not happen at all. In response to a fan asking for an update on the production, Brewster said there was nothing to share. “Sadly, we think it’s dead,” she wrote. “I’ll let you know if there is any progress but it seems unlikely. Which is a bummer.”

Paramount+ announced its plans for a revival production almost one year after the show finale aired in 2020. The streamer described it as “a new scripted series that brings the team back together to investigate a single, fascinating case over 10 episodes.” Though, not much information outside of that was revealed. The plot promised to “examine real cases, and real criminal behavior, illustrated by clips fans will remember from the fictional series.” When the series ended, its cast consisted of Joe Mantegna (David Rossi), Matthew Gray Gubler (Dr. Spencer Reid), A.J. Cook (JJ Jareau), Kirsten Vangsness (Penelope Garcia), Aisha Tyler (Dr. Tara Lewis), Daniel Henney (Matt Simmons), and Adam Rodriguez (Luke Alvez).

In the final episodes, viewers saw Garcia walking away from the BAU for greener pastures, but the team was still on the hunt for another killer.”Prentiss possibly being nominated as the first female director of the FBI, that’s something I’d like to see happen in the next five years. If this show was still on, that’s maybe how we would’ve gone with Prentiss,” showrunner Erica Messer told TV Insider at the time of the finale. “For JJ — certainly capable of running her own field office somewhere, but so much is tied to her family — it would only make sense for her to do that if it made sense for her family to make that move. Rossi’s still going to be consulting. [He’s] never going to give it up, and they’ll be lucky to have him and have his brains still working on cases.”

“Reid clearly wants to be a valuable asset to catching bad guys, but he’s also very aware he’s a huge asset to teaching as well, so he’ll continue having that balance,” she continued. “It’s fun to imagine, and that’s why we wanted to leave it open-ended and let you know Garcia’s moving on but she’s not far away and the rest of the team will still be catching the bad guys every week.”