‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’ Season 2: 4 Things to Expect When the Show Returns
[Warning: This article contains major spoilers for the Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 1 finale.]
Elias Voit may be in FBI custody, but Criminal Minds fans haven’t seen the last of him. The ultra-creepy unsub played by Zach Gilford will be back for Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2, which will also reveal more about the mysterious Gold Star. Here’s what we know so far about Voit’s return, Gold Star, and what else is in store for the next season of Paramount+’s Criminal Minds.
‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’ Season 2 will reveal more about Gold Star
The BAU finally caught up with Voit in the Criminal Minds: Evolution season finale. With the FBI closing in, the serial killer made a final play, leveraging his knowledge of something called Gold Star to lure Deputy Director Bailey (Nicholas D’Agosto) into the home where he was hiding out, killing him.
Ultimately, the agents were able to capture Voit, who is now in custody. In the episode’s finale scene, he’s in an interrogation room, where an unseen person pays him a visit. Who it is and what they want isn’t clear. But it seems like a safe bet it has to do with Gold Star, given that Bailey and Attorney General Louise Davis (Monnae Michaell) made it clear that they’d do whatever it took to keep details of Gold Star a secret, even considering letting Voit go.
For now, the nature of Gold Star is a mystery. But showrunner Erica Messer promises that answers are coming, even if the writers haven’t completely worked them out just yet.
“I can’t say a whole heck of a lot about it right now because we are in the writers’ room for this second season and Gold Star is shifting a little bit in our in our conversations,” she told TV Insider.
“What is it that got our dear beloved deputy director killed? There’s not a whole lot of clues you could look for from previous seasons, but there will be some things that we introduced in season 16 that will come into play regarding Gold Star for later,” she added.
Zach Gilford will return as Elias Voit
Gold Star might be shrouded in mystery, but fans can count Gilford’s return as Voit. As of now, the plan is for season 2 to begin by revealing who walked into the interrogation room, Messer told TV Insider.
Gilford’s performance as a calculating serial killer controlling a network of UnSubs was so compelling that the Criminal Minds team was determined to bring him back for another season.
“Zach became Voit, we absolutely fell in love with his portrayal of this guy — this complicated creature,” Messer told EW. “By the time the season ended we were like, ‘Can we keep playing with him? Is there a world where he’s in the next season? What does that look like?’ So we have plans to do that. That’s a testament to who Zach is and what he brought to this role, because this could have had a really neat ending [where] he’s caught and we’re moving on to something else, but instead we’re moving on with him involved.”
Fan-favorite BAU agents will also be back
In addition to Gilford, Criminal Minds fans can expect their favorite BAU agents to be back next season.
“Everybody in the main cast is coming back, they all had a contract to come back,” Messer told TVLine. That includes Joe Mantegna as David Rossi, Kirsten Vangsness as Penelope Garcia, and Aisha Tyler as Dr. Tara Lewis. However, as of now, there’s no word on whether former Criminal Minds cast members Matthew Gray Gubler (who played Spencer Reid) and Daniel Henney (who played Matt Simmons) might return. Neither actor was available for the revival, and the show explained their absence by saying they were on a classified assignment.
It “would be a dream” if Gubler and Henney’s mysterious assignment ended up being linked to Gold Star, Messer told TV Insider. But there’s no guarantee that’s how things will play out.
“Daniel and Matthew are doing their other projects, and so I don’t know if we’re gonna be able to get them back,” Messer said. “I would love to say we could have them back, but I can’t promise that.”
The new season of ‘Criminal Minds’ will again have a hybrid format
The original Criminal Minds generally took an episodic approach to storytelling, with new UnSubs every week. But Criminal Minds: Evolution adopted a more serialized format as the BAU team spent the entire 10-episode season tracking down Voit. But the series still stayed true to its roots by having episodes that focused on different killers in Voit’s network.
Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2 – which will have 10 episodes – will continue with that approach, Messer told TV Line.
“We’re going to do a hybrid. In the first four episodes so far, two are a little bit serial, and the two are not,” she said.
As for when new episodes might stream, Paramount+ hasn’t made any announcement about a release date. But fans might not have long to wait.
“Guys, we are coming back so fast it’ll make your head spin,” tweeted Emily Prentiss actor Paget Brewster. “Because of you! We start shooting in 2 months, thank you, thank you, thank you!!”
All episodes Criminal Minds: Evolution are streaming on Paramount+.
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