Criminal Minds: Evolution promised fans a jam-packed season full of twists and turns — and boy, did it deliver. Since the former CBS procedural drama got rebooted on Paramount+, viewers dove right back into the world of the BAU.
Over the course of 10 episodes, folks saw beloved FBI agents return, like Joe Mantegna's SSA David Rossi and Paget Brewster as unit chief Emily Prentiss. There were also moving family storylines, including one from A.J. Cook's SSA Jennifer Jareau. Aisha Tyler's Dr. Tara Lewis and Kirsten Vangsness's Penelope Garcia dealt with relationship problems, while Adam Rodriguez's SSA Luke Alvez acted as support for his fellow teammates. And all the while, the BAU followed through as they hunted down Sicarius, portrayed by season-long guest star Zach Gilford.
But like its predecessor, Criminal Minds: Evolution isn't over yet. The show is set to return for season 2, promising more drama. What's more, the season finale left fans wondering what exactly will happen now that Sicarius may be involved in something more sinister. Here's what to know about Criminal Minds: Evolution season 2, including release date, cast, news, updates and how to watch.
When is the release date for Criminal Minds: Evolution season 2?
On January 12, 2023 longtime viewers received the ultimate surprise when it was announced that Criminal Minds: Evolution got renewed for season 2 on Paramount+. The show's official Instagram later shared a photo featuring Rossi, Prentiss and Lewis in the elevator of Quantico. At the bottom of the picture, the show wrote the word "renewed," further confirming the news.
"Wheels up for another season!!! 🎉," read the caption, referencing the iconic catchphrase from the original CBS series.
As soon as the news broke, Tanya Giles, chief programming officer of Paramount Streaming, shared a statement about season 2.
"We’re thrilled to bring even more twisted storylines to our loyal fans of Criminal Minds: Evolution with the order of another season," she said, per Deadline. "The series has always been a consistent top performer for Paramount+ and fans have quickly embraced this new season with its more serialized elements. There are still many dark twists and turns yet to come for the BAU this season and we can’t wait for fans to see what’s in store."
Has Criminal Minds: Evolution season 2 begun filming?
It's official — as of January 2024, the BAU are officially back on set.
After months of not being able to work on the hit series, the show announced via a collection of photos on Instagram that the cast and crew are ready to film brand-new installments for longtime fans.
"The BAU is Back!" read the official caption on January 16, 2024. "The new season of #CriminalMinds: Evolution is officially in production 🎬."
And if that's not enough, the cast is equally ecstatic to get back into their FBI gear and tell new stories for the camera. As Kirsten Vangsness shared a behind-the-scenes look at the first day of filming, she couldn't help but exclaim how excited she was to play Penelope Garcia once more.
"OH HELLO FANCY DAY JOB. @criminalminds," she captioned a video on Instagram.
What's more, Joe Mantegna shared a snippet of him dressed as SSA David Rossi on Instagram, stepping out of his trailer to utter the famous Criminal Minds catchphrase, "Wheels up."
"🛫," he wrote on Instagram, while including the hashtags "Criminal Minds," "David Rossi," "Papa Rossi" and "wheels up."
The news of Criminal Minds: Evolution starting production comes months after a May 2023 article from TVLine revealed that there would be some time before production picked up for season 2 amid the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes in the summer.
"Winter might be a bit optimistic, since a well-placed source tells [TVLine] that the start of production — originally penciled in for April, and then pushed to June — is now 'TBD,' given the [Writer's Guild of America] strike," the report read at the time. While it was initially unclear when the actors would be able to go back to work, there was an update on new episodes being written.
According to a report from Deadline in late September 2023, Criminal Minds: Evolution show writers were set to go back to work in early October after the WGA struck a deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). While not much else was revealed about what's to come from the writers' room, it was still an exciting update on season 2's progress.
Then, SAG-AFTRA officially signed an agreement with the AMPTP in early November 2023, meaning that the cast can go back to work on creating the new season!
Paget Brewster shared an exciting update about the filming schedule after the SAG-AFTRA and WGA each struck a deal with the AMPTP. When a fan asked her when Criminal Minds: Evolution plans on filming season 2, she revealed that production is expected to resume right after New Year's in January.
"We start filming mid January at a break neck pace to get episodes to you ASAP!" she excitedly wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter) on November 12. "We all hope you will watch and love them!"
Make sure you hit "save" at the top of this article to stay up-to-date on the latest news about Criminal Minds: Evolution season 2.
Who is in the Criminal Minds: Evolution season 2 cast?
Based on the events of the season 1 finale, here is who we think will be in Criminal Minds: Evolution season 2:
- Joe Mantegna as SSA David Rossi
- Paget Brewster as BAU unit chief Emily Prentiss
- A.J. Cook as SSA Jennifer "JJ" Jareau
- Kirsten Vangsness as tech analyst Penelope Garcia
- Aisha Tyler as Dr. Tara Lewis
- Adam Rodriguez as SSA Luke Alvez
- Zach Gilford as Elias Voit
- Ryan-James Hanataka as Tyler Green
While fans thought they could expect Josh Stewart to recur as JJ's husband, Detective Will LaMontagne Jr., they got a shock when Josh announced he wouldn't be returning to the franchise for Criminal Minds: Evolution season 2.
"No sadly, my days of playing Will LaMontagne Jr. are over," he revealed on X when a fan asked if he'd be coming back to the show on January 17. "You guys have been the absolute best. 🙏."
Given how the couple's family life is a prominent storyline in Criminal Minds: Evolution season 1 (including A.J.'s sons Mekhai Andersen and Phoenix Andersen reprising their roles as her sons, Henry and Michael), fans were sad to see Josh go after being a staple in the series.
"Thank [you] [so much] for all these incredible years. You’ve been such a big and incredible part of the show thanks for everything man :( we will miss [you]!!!!!!!!" one person wrote on X. "We only just started seeing Will as much as he should be seen and now he’s gone 😭," another agreed. "I am going to miss you, I liked you from the very first episode I saw you on," a different follower added.
Despite Josh's exit from Criminal Minds: Evolution, one person's role just got a little bigger. After making his debut as former army intelligence officer-turned-criminal Tyler Green in season 1, Deadline announced Ryan-James Hatanaka will become a series regular for season 2. Ryan excited fans when he shared the news on Instagram on February 6.
"Wheels. Up. 😁 ---> Swipe for some fun news!" he wrote. "Thrilled to be a part of the exceptional @criminalminds team. Can't wait for you to see what we've been cooking up this season."
As viewers may remember, Tyler was introduced to the BAU after he tipped Garcia off to the underground network that Sicarius used to build his team of serial killers. Tyler's sister went missing in 2007, and his decade-long search determined Sicarius was her killer. Tyler discovered and infiltrated the network to try and take the UnSub down on his own, initiating the events that led to his eventual team-up with the BAU. The vigilante-like character was essential to taking down Voit.
Now, Criminal Minds: Evolution season 2 will follow Tyler as he becomes a consultant to the FBI unit and uses his psychological operations training to be an asset to their season-long case.
Are there any new details about Criminal Minds: Evolution season 2?
It sounds like the drama will pick up where it left off.
We know for sure now that Zach will be back. He spent the first season portraying Elias Voit (a.k.a. Sicarius), the UnSub who created an underground network of serial killers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
After Director Bailey (Nicholas D'Agosto) died as a result of Voit's knowledge of a secret project called "Gold Star," the season finale ended with Voit sitting in an interrogation room waiting to discuss what he knows. The final moments of the episode showed the door to the room opening before the screen went black, leaving fans with the cliffhanger of who was about to enter.
What's more, showrunner Erica Messer confirmed Zach will be back shortly after the season 1 finale aired. "We didn’t know we were gonna fall in love with Zach so much that we wanted to come up with a story that could continue, really, until we started breaking those episodes," she told Variety in February. "We’re like, how do we keep Zach around? ... We’re hoping to have Zach a lot in the season and sort of treat him — the simplest way to say it — as our Hannibal Lecter."
In the same interview, Erica also teased Tyler's (now-confirmed) return. Season 2 promises further exploration of the complicated love triangle between Tyler, Garcia and Alvez.
"Yes, there’s a very great chance that we will be seeing Tyler," she said to the outlet. "We loved Tyler. We love RJ. We thought that relationship would do exactly what it did this season, but we really liked giving Garcia that messy relationship. We just completely bought that she would break up with him after that betrayal, but that maybe it isn’t over. Maybe this is her person. We want to keep exploring that."
When asked about how she felt over the big news that Criminal Minds: Evolution would be back with new episodes, actress A.J. Cook shared that the entire cast was ecstatic over the season renewal.
"We were all kind of waiting for that news to drop," she exclusively told Good Housekeeping. "We're thrilled that they have made the official announcement and we can start moving forward."
As it turns out, a lot has been happening behind the scenes, with show writers getting right to work. "I know they're already in there, coming up with some story ideas for the second season," A.J. added. "It's exciting. I can't wait to see what they do next."
She continued: "Erica Messer, our showrunner, she's so good at what she does. She's got a plan and I can't wait to see it all come together. We're going to do what we always do — we're going to take you on a crazy, crazy wild ride with lots of twists and turns."
A.J.'s not the only one excited about the future of Criminal Minds: Evolution. In a December 2022 interview with E! News, Joe Mantegna spoke out about how excited he was to tell more stories with the BAU.
"First of all, we did 325 of the other version of it," he said about the original series. "We didn't stop because we said, 'OK, we're done. We ran out of stories.' We've worked with the FBI. We've had technical advisors from day one. And they'll let you know that there's millions of stories. We haven't even scratched the surface in terms of the kinds of stories that are out there."
Is Matthew Gray Gubler's Dr. Spencer Reid coming back to Criminal Minds: Evolution?
In February 2022, Deadline reported that longtime Criminal Minds cast member Matthew Gray Gubler wasn't returning as resident BAU genius Dr. Spencer Reid. When the show addressed the character's whereabouts, viewers learned that Spencer got reassigned to a top secret mission with a different FBI unit. But because the show continues to reference him, fans are still wondering why Spencer Reid isn't in the reboot.
When Erica was asked this question by TVLine in September 2022, she acknowledged that while Reid isn't onscreen, he certainly won't be lost in the shuffle.
"It’s a little bit of a mystery what Reid and Simmons are up to, but they’re certainly not forgotten," she told the outlet at the time. “Dr. Reid’s and I believe Matt Simmons’ desks are still there, still have stuff on it."
A.J. also gave details on Matthew's potential return when she spoke with Good Housekeeping in January. She revealed that he's not only seen the latest episodes, but he may be missing all the crimes the BAU tackles.
"He has [watched the show] and he's super excited. He thinks they're great," she said. "He wants to do it. He wants to be involved. It's just the timing hasn't been right yet ... He would absolutely come back if the timing could work."
A.J. and fans aren't the only ones keeping their fingers crossed. Speaking with TVLine about Matthew and Criminal Minds alum Daniel Henney starring on the show again, Erica is also thinking positively.
“It’d be amazing. I’m not giving up hope on that. But I do know that everybody has these lives outside of our show, and that’s the tricky part," she told the outlet.
She continued: "We shoot [10 episodes] in such a short little window, whereas before with a 22 order and nine months of shooting I’d feel confident to say, 'We’ll find a way to get them in.' But we don’t have that [larger window], and they’re off doing other things."
Ahead of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, Erica once again spoke out about Matthew coming back for season 2. Talking to Entertainment Weekly in February 2023 about the possibility for his return, she re-iterated how it's likely folks won't get the chance to see him onscreen with his former BAU co-workers.
"I wish that there was some promise that I could make to everybody, but it's not my promise to keep," she said at the time. "Everybody has other projects and other things they're doing, and because we are only doing 10 episodes again, it's such a short window that we shoot, if they're off doing something else ... "
When Matthew spoke to Good Housekeeping in September to promote his book The Little Kid With the Big Green Hand, he hinted that he's inclined to returning to TV at some point in his career.
"On the road, people are like, 'Oh, when are you going back to acting?' It's so weird because I don't see a difference between the daily endeavor of acting from the daily endeavor of writing to the daily endeavor of drawing," he said at the time. "I am sure I'll go back to comedy and to acting and all of that — I'm just not sure when."
What's more, he said he'd love to come back as Spencer Reid, should his schedule allow it. "Of course! I would be honored. I would absolutely love that," he said during a September 2023 appearance on The Six O'Clock Show. "They did a newer spin-off of the show, but it was filming during a time when I was shooting something else. But I can't wait — hopefully it will soon work out."
Where can I watch and stream Criminal Minds: Evolution season 2?
When Criminal Minds: Evolution season 2 is available for streaming, you can watch new episodes air each week on Paramount+. Until then, you can stay busy by re-watching the first season along with the original 15 seasons of Criminal Minds on the platform.
When the time comes to stream new episodes of Criminal Minds: Evolution, you want to make sure you're set up with an account on Paramount+. If you don't have one yet, you can start off with a 7-day free trial before opting into one of the plans, which start at $5.99 per month or $59.99 per year. Once you have that ready, head on over to the show's title page on the Paramount+ official website or the Paramount+ app while on-the-go.
Should you not want to stream Criminal Minds: Evolution and just watch the original CBS drama, Paramount+ isn't the only place to stream it. Hulu has the show available on its website, which you can access with plans that start at $7.99 per month or $79.99 per year. Just click on the show's official page on its website or the Hulu app.
