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The BAU is back in action, but one familiar member of the team is still MIA. Matthew Gray Gubler, who played Dr. Spencer Reid on Criminal Minds for 15 seasons, won’t appear in season 2 of Criminal Minds: Evolution, which premieres June 6 on Paramount+.

Spencer Reid isn’t in ‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’  

Prentiss, in red blouse, standing next to Reid, wearing dark jacket, in episode of 'Criminal Minds'
(L-R) Paget Brewster as Emily Prentiss and Matthew Gray Gubler as Dr. Spencer Reid in ‘Criminal Minds’ | Cliff Lipson/CBS via Getty Images

Criminal Minds wrapped up its decade-plus run on CBS in early 2020. But in 2022, the show was rebooted for a 16th season, dubbed Criminal Minds: Evolution. The 10-episode, streaming-only season featured the team – including David Rossi (Joe Mantegna), Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster), and Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) – working a complex case involving a serial killer named Elias Voit (Zach Gilford). 

While Criminal Minds: Evolution brought back most of the show’s core cast, a few familiar faces were missing. That included Gubler, whose quirky genius FBI agent was a fan-favorite character. 

Gubler’s absence was due to scheduling conflicts, he said in a 2023 interview with The Six O’Clock Show (via YouTube).

“They did a newer spin-off of the show, but it was filming during a time when I was shooting something else, so it didn’t work out,” he said. 

Scheduling conflicts prevented Matthew Gray Gubler’s return to ‘Criminal Minds’ 

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At the time, Gubler said that even though he wasn’t in the first season of Evolution, he’d be up for playing Reid again. 

“Hopefully it will soon work out,” he said. 

Unfortunately for fans, Gubler’s schedule again stood in the way of him appearing in Criminal Minds Season 17.

“It never worked out for season 16 and then season 17, maybe it could have worked out, and then the strikes happened and then it hasn’t worked out for season 17,” showrunner Erica Messer told TV Insider. “But we love him. He loves us. It’s not any of that. It’s just we’ve got to find a time to make it work.”

“Matthew’s been doing projects that have kept him away,” she added. 

Though Reid doesn’t appear on screen in the Criminal Minds revival, his character is still around in the show’s universe. As explained in season 1, Reid is away on a special assignment, along with fellow agent Matt Simmons (Daniel Henney). He’s still working on that mysterious case in season 2, which picks up just a couple of weeks after the end of season 1. 

“When we did the season math, season 16 was really only about six weeks’ worth of story, and now only two more weeks have gone by, so those guys are still doing what they’re doing,”  Messer explained to TVLine.

Another beloved Criminal Minds character who won’t appear in Evolution? Derek Morgan, who was played by Shemar Moore for 11 seasons. Moore left Criminal Minds in 2016 and soon after went on to star in S.W.A.T. His work on that show meant he wasn’t available to appear in the revival either. 

“We didn’t have any [opportunity] this season,” Messer told TVLine when asked if Moore would appear in the new season of Criminal Minds: Evolution. “He was, he thought, finishing his run on S.W.A.T., and now they have a renewal.”

Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2 premieres Thursday, June 6 on Paramount+. New episodes stream weekly on Thursdays. 

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