On February 19, 2020, CBS broadcast the last episode of Criminal minds at the end of its season 15. Well, that’s what we thought at the time. Only one year after this conclusion, Paramount + decided to relaunch the series and it is therefore on November 24, 2022 that we will finally have the right to Criminal Minds: Evolution.
On the program here? It will not really be a season 16, nor a total reboot. And for good reason, if new characters will be introduced on the screen, some cult faces adored by fans will nevertheless be present, be it Paget Brewster (Prentiss), Joe Mantegna (Rossi), AJ Cook (JJ), Kirsten Vangsness (Garcia ), Aisha Tyler (Tara) or even Adam Rodriguez (Luke).
On the concept side, expect a small evolution since the 10 episodes ordered will relate to one and the same case. Indeed, the team of investigators will go in pursuit of a network of serial killers that will have been formed thanks to the Covid-19 epidemic. Each episode should thus mark a different manhunt, but the general plot will follow one another and all the episodes will look like pieces of a puzzle that will fit together.
Two important absences from the casting
It will not have escaped you, among the confirmed returns to the cast, two major absences are already to be noted (three if we include Shemar Moore’s Derek): spencer reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) and Matt Simmons (Daniel Henney). What inevitably surprise us in view of their importance in the original series, and ask us a question: did the creators decide to kill the characters to advance the story? We reassure you, the answer is no.
Erica Messer (showrunner) confided to TVLine, this situation is solely caused by the comedians’ schedule, “There, everyone has other projects“, and is not linked to an ambition of the writers: “Reid and Matt Simmons’ offices are still there, with their stuff on them. Just as it was for you despite being away for two years after the pandemic. (…) They did not leave left“. A reassuring confidence, and an absence with which she and her team should even play on screen: “They are not forgotten, and what they are doing/where they are is a bit of a mystery. (…) We will play with that“.
Possible returns along the way?
And the positive thing is that the answers to the mystery of these absences could be provided as early as season 1. After recalling, “Our hope is that the people from the team that we ended the series with on CBS can come back and play a little with us at some point.“, Erica Messer clarified that there is still time to allow this this year, “We started shooting in August and will wrap up in December. So there is a small window of possibility for us to have all our friends“.
In other words, the absences of Reid and Simmons in Criminal Minds: Evolution may only be temporary. We cross our fingers.
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