Showrunner Erica Messer tells TheWrap about intertwining Paget Brewster and Zach Gilford’s plotlines in the Paramount+ sequel series
Whether you consider it Season 2 or Season 17, “Criminal Minds: Evolution” ended with quite the explosion in Thursday’s finale. While fans were concerned for Paget Brewster’s Prentiss going into Episode 10, it was Zach Gilford’s serial killer Voit (aka Sicarius) who ultimately met his end — or did he?
Since the sequel series has already been renewed for Season 3 at Paramount+, showrunner Erica Messer broke down the twist-filled finale with TheWrap and gave a concrete answer about that violent cliffhanger.
“It was a journey to get here, because in some ways it really started at last season’s finale when Doug Bailey (Nicholas D’Agosto) was killed by Elias Voit, seemingly because Voit used this code word ‘Gold Star,’ which got Bailey to walk in all alone, unarmed, into the lion’s den,” she explained. “The journey to get to Gold Star has been quite extensive and a winding road, ultimately landing in [Behavioral Analysis Unit] history. We were able to have Felicity Huffman come in and play Jill Gideon, who was there with Rossi (Joe Mantegna) and Jason Gideon (Mandy Patinkin) back in the day, and she was aware of a paper that led to the foundation of what Gold Star ended up becoming.”
“So the team has been circling these waters now the whole season, and when they get to Gold Star, Prentiss is abducted,” Messer continued. “Prentiss has had one heck of a season and it didn’t end in the finale. We let her go through all of it; she was physically tortured, mentally tortured and ultimately had her strong Emily Prentiss wits about her to talk herself out of death.”
“We thought we were going to be done creatively with Elias Voit at the end of the first season, sure. And then we weren’t. Then we thought the end of this season we’d be done with him, and it turns out we’re not,” she added. “So, you will see him next year.”
After Season 1 of the “Criminal Minds” continuation focused on Rossi followed by Prentiss in Season 2, Messer hinted at who fans can expect to see front and center when “Evolution” returns in 2025.
“I had this own little thing in my head, which is not even necessarily logical, but in Season 16/Season 1, it was really Rossi, and he happens to be No. 1 on our call sheet. And then this season, Prentiss is the second on the call sheet,” she explained. “So it’s like, I just kept going down the call sheet, in a way, and that’s kind of continuing into the third season.”
In addition to the aforementioned cast members, the series stars AJ Cook, Kirsten Vangsness, Aisha Tyler, Adam Rodriguez and Ryan-James Hatanaka, with Nicole Pacent and Clark Gregg in smaller roles, so it sounds to us like either JJ or Garcia will be leading things next time around.
“Our first season felt more hybrid, we had monsters of the week that happened to be tied to this other thing. Then last season, it got really in the weeds with the complicated web of Gold Star and so many mysteries. We are going back to that hybrid version,” Messer teased of Season 18’s story structure. “We have to remember that when Voit was locked up, there’s still a network that he created. So Gold Star was just this side quest and now we’re getting back to the thing that Voit started. We have to get back to that space, it’ll be a little more hybrid.”
The original “Criminal Minds” aired for 15 seasons on CBS from 2005-2020. “Criminal Minds: Evolution” reunited most of the cast and has been streaming since 2022. Spin-offs “Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior” and “Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders” also aired for one season and two seasons, respectively.
All 17 seasons of “Criminal Minds” are available to stream on Paramount+.