The revival series of Criminal Minds has announced that six cast members from the original show will be returning. Criminal Minds was a procedural crime drama that premiered on September 22, 2005. The show would have an impressive 15-season run, with the final episode airing on February 19, 2020. The series was a massive hit and became a franchise of its own, which included two spinoff series, a South Korean adaptation of the show, and a video game.
While Criminal Minds ended in 2020, discussions would open up surrounding a revival series with Paramount+ only a year later. However, since February of 2021, there was little information released about the project, leading some fans to speculate that the series might not come to fruition. On June 28, 2022, longtime Criminal Minds actress Paget Brewster (Emily Prentiss) announced that the Paramount+ series was still in pre-production and that, at the time, none of the rumored cast had signed their contracts yet.
Deadline has reported that six fan-favorite actors from the original Criminal Minds series would be reprising their roles in the revivial: Joe Mantegna, Kirsten Vangsness, Adam Rodriguez, A.J. Cook, Aisha Tyler, and Paget Brewster. All six actors were part of Criminal Minds’ final season. Also returning to the revival series is the executive producer and showrunner for Criminal Minds, Erica Messer, and the contracts of all six actors were contingent on Messer signing a pact with ABC Signature.
Matthew Gray Gubler and Daniel Henney, the two other main cast members from season 15, have not signed on to the revival as of yet. Gubler expressed that he was ready to move on from Criminal Minds after being a main cast member for 15 years, despite his character Dr. Spencer Reid being a consistent fan-favorite across all of the show’s seasons. Meanwhile, Henney is currently starring in the Amazon Prime series The Wheel of Time, and any appearances by Henney in the Criminal Minds revival would be contingent on his Wheel of Time filming schedule.
With the revival series though to have been dead in the water for so long, it’s immensely encouraging to see such a major update. Fans of the original series will be happy to see many longtime characters returning, and while there has been little information released about the project otherwise, this is a hopeful development. With all of Criminal Minds’ spinoff series having performed so poorly in comparison to the original show, however, it remains to be seen whether or not the Criminal Minds revival can still live up to fan expectations.
