Criminal Minds Season 19: Who's In, Who's Out
Criminal Minds is stoking season 19 buzz with hints of a major cast shake-up even as the BAU reconvenes on set. After a fresh May 2025 set photo from Paramount+, here’s who’s already back—and who might be bowing out.
The BAU is gearing up for another round of Criminal Minds: Evolution, and the road to season 19 (aka Evolution season 4 if you’re tracking the original count) has already been a little messy. A set photo in May 2025 sent fans into red-alert mode when one very important face was missing. Fast-forward to spring 2026 and we finally have clarity on who’s actually back, who’s still in limbo, and which familiar heartbreaks are going to keep hurting.
The set photo that kicked up the speculation
In May 2025, the official Criminal Minds account posted a cheery behind-the-scenes shot with the caption: "The BAU is back on the case! A new season of Criminal Minds: Evolution has officially started filming. " In the picture: Joe Mantegna, Aisha Tyler, Kirsten Vangsness, Adam Rodriguez, A.J. Cook, Paget Brewster, and Ryan-James Hatanaka. Not in the picture: Zach Gilford, the series’ not-so-secret weapon since Evolution kicked off.
That absence looked like a giant neon sign for a cast exit. It wasn’t. Paramount+ later confirmed in March 2026 that Gilford is returning for season 19.
Where we left the big bad (who might not be so bad?)
Season 16 (Evolution’s first chapter) introduced Gilford’s Elias Voit, the guy the BAU dubbed Sicarius after linking him to 62 murders and an online serial-killer network. In a very Criminal Minds twist, he was actually arrested for just one murder… and then started consulting for the feds. As if that wasn’t weird enough, season 18 threw a curveball: neurological issues wiped out key pieces of Voit’s psyche, to the point that the team stopped labeling him a psychopath. Yes, the show literally changed his brain.
"His brain is literally physically changed. So in theory, he is a good person and he is a normal person now. But he still has done all those things... even though neurologically this person would never do this again — he has done it."
That’s Gilford, last May, spelling out the delicious moral mess the writers created. Bottom line: the guy who masterminded a kill network might now be neurologically incapable of doing it again. But the bodies don’t vanish just because the MRI looks friendlier.
The JJ and Will gut-punch
If you’re still not over it, same. In a May 2025 episode, JJ’s husband Will (Josh Stewart) collapsed after a headache and didn’t make it. The team rallied at the hospital; it didn’t matter. A.J. Cook has been clear that JJ’s grief isn’t a one-and-done storyline. Expect it to stretch through the new season and beyond as she recalibrates life as a single mom.
So who’s back for season 19?
Joe Mantegna is back as Rossi, a role he took over in the original run from Mandy Patinkin’s Gideon era. Paget Brewster’s Prentiss makes it through season 18 intact — the behind-the-scenes shots already gave that away — and she’s back in the saddle. Kirsten Vangsness (Garcia) was front and center in that set photo, so yes, the BAU’s resident sunshine hacker is still at her desk.
Aisha Tyler’s Tara returns too. After some personal turbulence, she and Rebecca (played by Nicole Pacent) reconnected in season 18, and that relationship is still in play. Speaking of Pacent, you’ll see her name again below.
Adam Rodriguez is back as Luke. He’s also been pretty candid about the job’s stakes: the show doesn’t blindside its actors with shock deaths — you get a call — but nobody wants that call, especially on a set that everyone keeps describing as a dream gig. Translation: they know fans are attached, and they’re not cavalier about swinging the axe. Will’s exit already did a lot of heavy lifting on that front this past year.
Ryan-James Hatanaka’s Tyler Green has been pseudo-BAU for a while now. Season 18 made it clear that officially joining the unit can take, wait for it, up to a decade of experience elsewhere. Not exactly instant-gratification career planning. Still, the show keeps finding reasons to keep him in the field with the team.
Zach Gilford is indeed back as Voit. Even he knows he can’t hang around forever — he’s joked that if they don’t kill him, maybe spin him off and make him the BAU’s white whale. For now, though, he’s in the season 19 mix.
As for Matthew Gray Gubler: he popped in for a cameo in season 18, but don’t bank on a regular Reid return. Showrunner Erica Messer has said they’ve tried (and he’s tried) to make the timing work, but schedules are schedules. Gubler is busy shooting his new CBS series, Einstein.
Season 19 guest stars (and there are a lot)
Paramount+ stacked the guest roster when it confirmed Gilford’s return in March 2026. Here’s who else is on deck:
- 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
- Cara Jade Myers
The vibe heading into the new season
The cast sounds energized but realistic: the BAU’s world is dangerous, and the show doesn’t shy away from that. There’s a general hope that no one else gets sacrificed "for the sake of good television," but if history is any guide, the series knows how to hurt. With JJ’s loss still reverberating and Voit’s identity in ethical limbo, season 19 is set up to push buttons the show rarely touches — not just whodunnit, but who are you if the worst version of you gets medically erased.