‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’ Renewed — Will Finale Set Up Season 18?

The BAU is coming back for more: Criminal Minds: Evolution has been renewed for another season.

This news comes just ahead of the Paramount+ drama returning for its 17th season (the third of the revival) on Thursday, June 6 with two episodes. (The rest of the season will drop weekly.) The renewal is for the 18th season total of Criminal Minds—15 aired during its original run on CBS (2005-2020). Production will begin later this year.

Criminal Minds: Evolution this season picks up where the last one left off, with the team of profilers—Prentiss (Paget Brewster), Rossi (Joe Mantegna), JJ (A.J. Cook), Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness), Lewis (Aisha Tyler), and Luke (Adam Rodriguez)—investigating the deadly mystery of Gold Star. As the conspiracy unfolds, the BAU is met with an unexpected complication when serial killer Elias Voit (Zach Gilford) negotiates a deal that transfers him to federal custody in the agents’ own backyard. The team faces its biggest threat yet and cannot emerge unscathed from the mind-bending consequences.

But will this season tee up the next like Voit did with Gold Star at the end of the last finale? TV Insider recently asked showrunner Erica Messer just that.

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“This season will end on a cliffhanger, for sure, but it’s less of a direct mystery like Gold Star was this year. It’s more of a, ‘uh-oh, now what?’ cliffhanger,” she told us.

Season 18 could also see the return of Josh Stewart, who has recurred as JJ’s husband Will since the second season of the original run, after his absence in the upcoming season. Stewart had shared on social media that his days of playing Will were “over.”

“Because it’s only two weeks from last season and it’s sort of a bullet train of a year, we know that he’s on an assignment, just like there’s always another case, just like we always have another case,” Messer explained to us. “So we’re not going to see him this year, as he posted, but we’ll figure out what that means for future seasons, if we get future seasons. But for this year, the timing, none of it worked.”

The series also stars Ryan-James Hatanaka. Guest stars in Season 17 include Clark Gregg, Felicity Huffman, Liana Liberato, Paul F. Tompkins, Tuc Watkins, and Brian White.

Criminal Minds: Evolution is produced by ABC Signature and CBS Studios. Messer executive produces with Breen Frazier, Chris Barbour, Glenn Kershaw, and Mark Gordon.

Criminal Minds: Evolution, Season 17 Premiere (two episodes), Thursday, June 6, Paramount+