Paramount+ has finally unveiled the official title for its upcoming “Criminal Minds” revival: “Criminal Minds: Evolution.” The continuation of the CBS original hit will premiere exclusively on the streaming service this fall and will even welcome a new guest star.
Zack Guilford (“Friday Night Lights”) is set to join the cast as a recurring guest star in a season-long arc. Guilford will play Elias Voight, an operations analyst at a global cyber-security firm that has a dark side and an obsession with death.
“Criminal Minds: Evolution” will continue and expand the franchise for streaming audiences, blending elements of the series into the format of the series. CBS’s original “Criminal Minds” series, which ran from 2005–2020, followed the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, profiling the best of the worst.
In “Criminal Minds: Evolution,” the FBI’s elite team of criminal profilers come up against their greatest threat, an unsub who has used the pandemic to build a network of other serial killers. As the world opens back up and the network becomes operational, the team must hunt them down, one murder at a time. The original cast includes Joe Mantegna, AJ Cook, Kirsten Vangsness, Aisha Tyler, Adam Rodriguez and Paget Brewster, reprising their roles.
By Q2, Paramount+ has grown to 43 million global customers. Executives are hopeful that the upcoming “Criminal Minds” revival could help convert additional subscribers, given that the original was the most-watched TV show among American streaming platforms. Nielsen in 2021.
“Criminal Minds: Evolution” is produced by ABC Signature and CBS Studios. Erica Messer, who worked on both “Criminal Minds” and the spinoff “Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders,” serves as showrunner, executive producer, and writer. Breen Frazier and Christopher Barbour will serve as writers and executive producers, Glenn Kershaw will direct and executive produce, and Mark Gordon will also serve as executive producers.
