‘Criminal Minds’ Longtime Star Exits ‘Evolution’: What Does This Mean for JJ?

Is it bad that our first thought upon reading which recurring cast member we won’t see again on Criminal Minds: Evolution was to a storyline in the original run’s final season?

Production on the new season began on January 16, but someone who won’t be seen in any behind-the-scenes content from set (Kirsten Vangsness shared a video on Instagram) is Josh Stewart, who has recurred as Will LaMontagne Jr., who started out as a detective the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) worked with on a case and eventually became JJ’s (A.J. Cook) husband, will not be back.

A fan asked him on X if he would be in the new season, and in reply, he wrote, “No sadly, my days of playing Will LaMontagne Jr. are over. You guys have been the absolute best.” (TV Insider has reached out to Paramount+ for comment.)

Our second thought: maybe that cancer scare wasn’t just a scare? JJ and Will navigated a potential issue with his health (which turned out to be an inflamed thyroid that could be treated) in the first season of the Paramount+ revival and, at the same time realized how much their older son Henry overheard their conversations. Could the new season begin with the shocking reveal that Will — dare we say it — died? That something happened in the time that passed? That maybe he wasn’t being entirely truthful? Stewart’s comment does make it sound like his exit is a permanent one from the series, not just a matter of appearing in the upcoming season.

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“We love Josh Stewart and he’s always on multiple projects and he’s got such a huge great career that it’s like we get him when we can get him and we’re happy to use him when we can,” showrunner Erica Messer had told TV Insider after the finale in February 2023. “There’s something fun about the fact the character’s background is a detective and he feels very believable in the field with us and there are joint task forces all the time between the FBI and Metro PD and all that kind of stuff. So it certainly works in the real world test of it. But yeah, we have to wait and see when Josh is done with his next project.”

As for that aforementioned first thought of ours, it was in the final season of Criminal Minds that the possibility of a JJ and Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) romance was introduced. Now, do we think anything will really happen? No. Plus, there’s been no word of Gubler even returning; he has not been part of the revival. But that didn’t stop it from popping into our heads.

Criminal Minds: Evolution, New Season, TBA, Paramount+