In what has to be the quickest turnaround on a T.V. revival ever, police procedural phenomenon Criminal Minds is set to return to our screens after ending just two years ago in 2020. The beloved series ran for 15 seasons, consisting of 324 episodes, after premiering in 2005. And yet the cases of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) are still not over. Paramount Plus is working on a relaunch of the show — with six original cast members in talks to come back.
Deadline is reporting that Joe Mantegna (David Rossi), Kirsten Vangsness (Penelope Garcia), Adam Rodriguez (Luke Alvez), A.J. Cook (Jennifer “J.J.” Jareau), Aisha Tyler (Tara Lewis), and Paget Brewster (Emily Prentiss) have all agreed to reprise their roles for the streaming series. That said, they’ve yet to officially sign along the dotted line at this time as lead studio ABC Signature is currently focusing its sights on securing the revival’s showrunner.
Erica Messer, the long-running E.P. on the original Criminal Minds, is said to be ABC’s first target to lock down. Negotiations are believed to be close to an agreement but not quite there yet. Once talks with Messer are resolved, Deadline notes that Mantegna, Vangsness, Rodriguez, Cook, Tyler, and Brewster are all set to continue their own negotiations.
These six stars make up three-quarters of the regular cast of CM‘s final year. The only two outstanding are Matthew Gray Gubler, who featured in all fifteen seasons as the show’s breakout character Spencer Reid, and Daniel Henney, who played Matt Simmons from season 10 onward. Unfortunately, Gubler has made clear that he’s said goodbye to the franchise, while Simmons is currently busy with commitments to Amazon’s The Wheel of Time.
The Criminal Minds revival is set for a 10-episode debut season on Paramount Plus. Going by this latest update, it should serve up exactly what fans loved about the O.G. series.
