Criminal Minds: Evolution season 2 wasn’t supposed to bring back Elias Voit but that changed, as explained by showrunner Erica Messer. Upon the BAU’s arrival on Paramount+, they were immediately pitted against a worthy adversary in Zach Gilford’s Voit aka. Sicarius. Unlike other unsubs that the Criminal Minds franchise has seen, he connected serial killers via an online network database. In the end, he was eventually captured, but he returns as part of the Criminal Minds: Evolution season 2 cast, which was not part of the original plan for the beloved revival.

In a new interview with Collider, Messer revealed that Voit’s arc was going to end in Criminal Minds: Evolution season 1. However, they decided to scrap it after realizing that there’s more to the character that can explore beyond the show’s first 10 episodes. Read her full quote below:

We thought Evolution would basically become a different version of Voit every year, and then we met Zach. He’s so compelling as this character that we just thought, “There’s more story to mine here. He’s very complicated. What he’s done to this team, by taking our beloved Rossi, we’re not done with him yet.” He was so wily, saying “Gold Star” to lure out Bailey. And then, he killed Bailey, so what the hell does Gold Star mean? That gave us the entire season that we have. So, it was definitely not anticipated at the start of Season 16, but maybe halfway through 16, we thought, “I think he’s gotta stay, now that he’s here.

Why Voit Is Such An Interesting Criminal Minds: Evolution Unsub

Voit Only Has One Weakness — His Family

In its 15 years on CBS, the BAU saw all kinds of criminals. As great as the lead ensemble was, they were only as good as the villains that they were hunting. The more interesting the killer was, the more exciting the case was, resulting in the profilers being motivated to show off just how good they were at their jobs. Some of those perpetrators got the best of the BAU, with the team suffering losses and other kinds of tragedies doing the good work. Somehow, however, Voit feels more difficult to handle for a combination of reasons.

Voit is not only smart and conniving, but he has a specialization that allows him to reach other people, so they do his bidding for him. As seen in Criminal Minds: Evolution season 2 thus, he is good at playing mind games, which forces the FBI to cater to most of his demands for any kind of information about Gold Star. Even after the profilers caught him red-handed in season 1, he continues to deny being Sicarius, which suggests that he fully believes that there’s a chance that he can get away from all the charges against him.

That said, just like most bad guys that the BAU ever faced, Voit has a weakness — his family. As long as Emily Prentiss and her team can continue to play that angle, they can throw Sicarius off his game. For now, however, they’d have to be a bit more careful about how to approach this as the unsub can end up shutting down and refusing to help them crack the Gold Star case, especially after their emotional encounter in Criminal Minds: Evolution season 2, episode 4.

Source: Collider