‘Criminal Minds’ is returning to TV with a Thanksgiving Day debut.
The first two episodes of “Criminal Minds: Evolution” will be available on Paramount+ starting November 24, it was announced Wednesday.
The series will continue and expand the franchise to streaming audiences, blending serial elements into its format. 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.
Additionally, the series has added Zack Guilford (“Friday Night Lights”) 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” 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, while Glenn Kershaw will direct and executive produce, and Mark Gordon will also serve as executive producers.
Following the premiere, new episodes of “Criminal Minds: Evolution” will kick off weekly until its mid-season finale on Thursday, December 15. The season will then return on Thursday, January 12, with all new episodes dropping. Weekly through closing Thursday, February 9.
