The second season of Criminal Minds: Evolution came to a thrilling end with a finale that kept Prentiss’ life in danger from the very start to almost the very end. Fortunately, all the good guys were alive and as well as could be hoped by the time the final credits rolled in early August, with Voit getting the bloody cliffhanger. Now, filming has officially kicked off on the third season, and seeing the behind-the-scenes pics reminded me of what showrunner Erica Messer told CinemaBlend about those shout-outs to Reid and Hotch in Season 2.
Criminal Minds: Evolution was renewed for Season 3 – or Season 18 of the show overall – before Season 2 even premiered back in June of the 2024 TV schedule for fans with Paramount+ subscriptions, so there was no need to worry about the show’s future as the new episodes released. Filming has begun on the new season less than a month after the Season 2 finale ended on a huge Voit cliffhanger (which showrunner Erica Messer explained for us), and the cast are all smiles in the BTS images. Take a look:
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While it seems like a very safe bet that those smiles won’t extend to their characters in Season 18 unless Prentiss breaks out her snacks again, it’s great to see the stars of such a dark show looking so bright and sunny behind the scenes. Of course, these stars don’t make up the entire cast from the original run of the series, with actors including Matthew Gray Gubler, Shemar Moore, and Thomas Gibson absent from the revival so far.
Gibson’s absence as Hotch isn’t altogether surprising after his dramatic exit from the popular TV show back in 2016, although Hotch wasn’t killed off or given a permanent fate when he was written out of early Season 12. Moore’s Derek Morgan had already left the BAU, so his absence isn’t too jarring either. Spencer Reid is still part of the FBI, however; Gubler just hasn’t appeared due to schedule conflicts. All three characters were mentioned by Jill Gideon (Felicity Huffman) in Season 2, with Prentiss confirming that Reid was on “sabbatical.”
And two of the former series regulars got some particular attention. There was one notable Easter egg for Reid in the course of the season, and Hotch was clearly on Prentiss’ mind in at least the first couple episodes. When I spoke with showrunner Erica Messer about Evolution Season 2, she explained how important it is for the show to include nods to these characters who were so key to the show in earlier years:
It’s really important to me. I’ve been here the whole entire time. I always say, we needed all those years to get the year that we have. Especially with Jill having a history with the team, it would be weird that she doesn’t ask about these people that were on the team twenty years ago, right? So it’s really important to me to acknowledge that these people are part of our family, even if we don’t see them every day.
If anything, it would have been bizarre if Jill hadn’t mentioned Reid, Hotch, and Morgan. Her questions about them did remind me that we have a lot more closure for Morgan than the other two, as he got a pretty great exit on his own terms. Hotch’s exit had to be abrupt due to the actor’s real-life firing, so there may never be great closure for the character. As for Reid… well, we can always hope that he’ll be back as Evolution continues.
When it comes to Jill as the character who was the right person to ask after these characters, Erica Messer only had high praise for Felicity Huffman and her scenes with Joe Mantegna. The showrunner said:
Felicity came with a history of knowing Joe for like forty years. So when they were in scenes together, there’s not many people who call Joe ‘Joey,’ but she does. And so she’s in scenes with Joey, and there might have been nerves, but I didn’t feel them. They just rolled into it like they had been doing it forever. She’s incredible. I mean, she came in, and this is not a show she would normally be on. This is not dialogue that she’s known for, and I believed every word that came out of her mouth. I was just in awe of her.
Huffman is likely best known professionally for her eight seasons in the Desperate Housewives cast, and Desperate Housewives definitely isn’t in the same genre as Criminal Minds. The actress isn’t pictured in any of the BTS images, but that’s far from confirmation of whether she’s not going to be in Evolution Season 3. For now, we can only wait for news about casting as filming gets underway.
I’d personally love to at least get a Reid cameo, but I also think that the first two seasons of Evolution worked well enough on their own that the show can really continue indefinitely as is. While there are no details at the time of writing of when exactly to expect the next batch of episodes, you can revisit all seventeen seasons of the overall series streaming on Paramount+ now.