Criminal Minds appeared to hint at a possible major forged exit ahead of season 19 — but who is predicted to return to date?
The official account for the hit Paramount+ series shared a photograph from the set in May 2025 with the caption, “The BAU is back on the case! A brand new season of Criminal Minds: Evolution has officially began filming.”
Within the social media post, Joe Mantegna, Aisha Tyler, Kirsten Vangsness, Adam Rodriguez, A.J. Cook, Paget Brewster and Ryan-James Hatanaka all smiled for the camera. The one major forged member missing? Zach Gilford.
The primary season of Criminal Minds: Evolution (a.k.a. season 16 of the OG Criminal Minds series) introduced Voit because the major antagonist. The BAU spent the whole season hunting down the prolific killer, who they nicknamed Sicarius after linking him to 62 murders — and for being the mastermind behind establishing an internet network of fellow serial killers.
After Voit was arrested — for a single murder — he became an expert criminal consultant for the BAU. Voit’s status because the villain was left up within the air when earlier this season he had significant memory loss that caused him to not be labeled as a psychopath.
“That is what I like about it’s his brain patterns. His brain is literally physically modified. So in theory, he’s a very good person and he’s a traditional person now. But he still has done all those things,” Gilford exclusively told Us Weekly in May 2025. “It’s a extremely cool concept that though neurologically this person would never do that again — he has done it. It’s just such a crazy concept that there’s no real right answer to. Ultimately I’m like, ‘Well, he did do all of it … allegedly.’”
Voit’s unclear future on the show got here after Josh Stewart‘s character Will was killed off. In a May 2025 episode, JJ’s (Cook) husband, Will, collapsed after experiencing a headache. The team rushed to the hospital to support JJ, only to search out out that Will didn’t make it.
Paramount+ confirmed in March 2026 that Gilford is returning alongside latest guest stars: Connor Storrie, Justin Kirk, Yvette Nicole Brown, Clark Gregg, Paul F. Tompkins, Cress Williams, Kofi Siriboe, Lyndon Smith, Richard Cabral, Jeri Ryan, Rob Yang, Nicholas Gonzalez, Inny Clemons, Nicole Pacent, Dash Mihok, Joseph Cross and Cara Jade Myers.
Keep scrolling for what to learn about which Criminal Minds characters are coming back — and which could not:
Joe Mantegna
Mantegna is about to return within the role of Rossi, which he has played since taking on for Mandy Patinkin in the unique Criminal Minds show.
A. J. Cook
Cook will return to play JJ, who continues to be mourning the lack of her husband.
“We definitely touch on loads of the grief phases. And it is just not like we shoot one episode and she or he’s passed through all of it and it’s tied up neatly with a pleasant bow. That’s not how grief works,” Cook told TV Insider in May 2025. “So that is going to be something that we’re going to see throughout the entire season. After which beyond that.”
She continued: “This never goes away. This now has shaped her into this latest single mother, and it can proceed shaping her as she now learns to work through life this manner. So I’m excited to see what that appears like for her. It’s been a journey already, and it’ll proceed to be a journey in Criminal Minds form.”
Kirsten Vangsness
Since Vangsness was within the photo from set, it feels protected to assume that Garcia is just not going anywhere any time soon.
Aisha Tyler
One other character who seemed to be protected was Tara (Tyler) after coping with some issues in her personal life before reuniting with girlfriend Rebecca (Nicole Pacent) in season 18.
Zach Gilford
Gilford — and the remainder of the Criminal Minds forged — has acknowledged that Voit can’t remain on the show for good.
“I used to be alleged to leave the show some time ago and I’ve been pitching, ‘Well, I actually have to go away sooner or later. If you happen to’re not going to kill me, we must always have a derivative,’” Gilford quipped to Us in May 2025. “It’s called Criminal Mind: Voit and it follows what Voit is doing when he’s out on this planet. One way or the other he either escapes or he gets released and he is that this white whale to the BAU. So Criminal Minds can keep going and having their [unsub] of the week — but they’ll all the time be like, ‘I’m wondering if Voit had something to do with this.’”
He is predicted to return in season 19.
Ryan-James Hatanaka
While season 18 explored Tyler (Hatanaka) working with the BAU while training to officially join the team, it was revealed that he would likely should be moved elsewhere to realize experience. Tyler seemed shocked that it could take 10 years for him to officially be a part of the BAU team — but to date the show has found ways to maintain him working with the remainder of the team in the sector.
Adam Rodriguez
Rodriguez, who’s presumably returning as Luke, recently spoke to Us about how high the stakes are on the show.
“You never need to turn the page [and find out that your character was killed off]. But I’ll say that because of our boss and leader on the show, [showrunner] Erica Messer, nobody could be surprised by that. You’d definitely get a call long before that was going to occur,” Rodriguez told Us in May 2025. “You could be given a heads up, I can say needless to say. But no one desires to get that decision.”
Rodriguez praised Criminal Minds for being a very good place to work, adding, “We love being there. That is such a dream job. It’s just such a beautiful place to indicate up and go to work daily. No one wants it to be over and no one wants to go away. So hopefully we get to do the show for a very long time.”
He continued: “Hopefully no one gets sacrificed for the sake of excellent television and we discover another folks that we will construct enough merit. Will ended up serving that purpose this 12 months. But I feel it just brings something else to the show that fans can enjoy and suffer through with us.”
Paget Brewster
Based on the behind the scenes photos, Prentiss is alive and well by the point season 18 will come to an end.
Matthew Gray Gubler
Despite making a cameo in season 18, Gubler isn’t expected to maintain returning consistently in future episodes. He last played Reid on the show when it was still on CBS and didn’t return for the Paramount+ revival.
“We love [Matthew] and he’s all the time going to be an element of the family. We might love for a possibility to arise to get him back. And we’ve tried — and he has tried,” showrunner Erica Messer exclusively told Us in July 2024. “It just hasn’t worked out timing-wise. However it’s not for lack of trying.”
Gubler is currently filming his upcoming CBS series, Einstein.