The BAU is back on the case.
The all-star FBI team is reuniting for the upcoming Criminal Minds reboot, aptly titled Criminal Minds: Evolution, and are sharing so many details on the 10-episode Paramount+ series that it should be criminal. When the series begins, showrunner Erica Messer explains, all of our favorites are "in a very different place" than when the original show ended in Feb. 2020.
"We've got Prentiss (Paget Brewster), who has now been promoted outside of the BAU unit chief. She has a new position where she oversees dozens of units," Messer shared in interview with Entertainment Weekly published Sept. 13. "Rossi (Joe Mantegna) has taken her place as unit chief, but he's going through a big thing. So he's kind of in all five stages of grief when we meet him in the first two episodes. We will learn why by the end of the first hour."
Messer teased that Luke Alvez (Adam Rodriguez) has been staying local, while JJ Jareau (A.J. Cook) and Tara Lewis (Aisha Tyler) have been answering the BAU's calls, all while fighting with the higher-ups at the FBI in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The next chapter will focus on a mysterious new unsub who's built a network of serial killers during quarantine. But, in the middle of all this, we get to learn more of Rossi's origins and what, exactly, happened after Alvez asked Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) out in the series finale.
"They've gone out on a date and I'm sure everybody, me included, was like, 'What's that? How does that work?'" Vangsness teased. "You'll find out and see…"
And although just six of the eight BAU members returned for the revival series, Messer said there's always room for fan favorites like Dr. Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) and Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore) at headquarters.
"Their desks will still have stuff on them. They haven't gone away," Messer said. "If and when they return, it's up to them. It's dependent on their schedules. I can't promise anything right now. But it's the hope."
Criminal Minds: Evolution comes to Paramount+ this fall.