‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’: Joe Mantegna Says Paramount+ Revival Is a ‘Blessing’
Criminal Minds fans are in for a Thanksgiving Day treat. The much-loved procedural drama is set to return to TV less than three years after its February 2020 series finale. Criminal Minds: Evolution sees the BAU team reunited and tracking down what may be their most devious opponent yet. The agents face off against a serial killer who spent the pandemic shutdown building a network of other murderers. Now, the world has opened back up, and his network has gone operational.
For series star Joe Mantegna, the opportunity to step back into supervisory special agent David Rossi’s shoes was an unexpected gift.
“To be given the treat of, the blessing of getting another run around a track with it has been great,” he told Showbiz Cheat Sheet.
Joe Mantegna didn’t know if the ‘Criminal Minds’ revival would happen
Talk of a Criminal Minds revival began swirling almost as soon as the series finale aired. But Mantegna said that after the season 15 closer, “And In the End,” it seemed Criminal Minds was done.
“I didn’t know [the revival] was going to happen,” he said. “None of us [knew]. When the show ended two and a half years ago, our feeling was, OK, I guess this is it. Time well spent.”
“Look, I’ve been in this business for many, many years, and so I know what it’s like that sometimes you just got to lay something down and move on to the next,” he added.
Still, that didn’t mean that the actor had any hesitation about returning to the BAU when given the chance.
“I’m ready for it,” he said.
‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’ takes the show to ‘another level’
The new Criminal Minds offers much of what fans loved about the original series, but with a twist. Rather than focusing on a new case in each episode, as the original series usually did, Criminal Minds: Evolution will explore a single, complex case over the course of 10 episodes. It also delves more deeply into the agents’ personal lives.
“I really think it is an evolution,” Mantegna said, nodding to the show’s title. “I really think it’s taking it, what was a very successful show that told good stories, I think we are taking it to another level which has been rewarding as an actor to do.”
The show is an evolution for the individual characters as well. When viewers see Rossi again in the season premiere, they’ll find him in a dark place as he takes on a challenging case while also dealing with some issues in his personal life. For Mantegna, that’s part of his character’s realistic journey this season.
“Life isn’t perfect,” he said. “Why should it be perfect for these particular people and this particular individual, David Rossi, specifically? And so my feeling is it’s not a matter of how knocked down he is, but how soon or in what capacity is it going to get up, you know? And that’s the journey that he’s he’s initially on when we join the show again.”
Mantegna says he’s brought some of himself into the David Rossi character
David Rossi might be a fictional creation. But there’s more than a little of Mantegna in the dedicated FBI agent. It’s “no accident” that both Mantegna and Rossi share an Italian-American background, the actor said, adding that he’s incorporated “personal aspects of who I am” into Rossi over the decade-plus he’s spent portraying the character. (Mantegna joined Criminal Minds in season 3 after the sudden departure of Mandy Patinkin as Jason Gideon.)
“I think I purposely embraced much of who I am in the character right from the jump,” the Tony-winning actor shared. “I was given some early advice that was wise in that respect of if you get a character that you might do for many, many years, that kind of TV series, try to bring in a lot of aspects of who you are to it because then you have things to draw upon.”
“Hopefully I’ve learned things from doing this role and then hopefully this character has absorbed aspects of who I am,” he added. “And that’s what creates, hopefully, a character that people find interesting and want to see as part of this show.”
Criminal Minds: Evolution premieres Thursday, Nov. 24 on Paramount+.
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