Criminal Minds: Evolution arrived on Thanksgiving Day and Paramount+ subscribers were treated to a few surprises in the revival. While the 10 episodes will tell a complete story, it is possible that viewers could see a second season as well.

A crime drama, the Criminal Minds: Evolution TV show is a sequel to the Criminal Minds series and stars Joe Mantegna, A.J. Cook, Kirsten Vangsness, Aisha Tyler, Adam Rodriguez and Paget Brewster with Zach Gilford, Josh Stewart, and Nicole Pacent recurring. In the story, the FBI’s elite team of criminal profilers come up against their greatest threat yet — an UnSub who has used the pandemic to build a network of other serial killers. As the world opens back up and the network goes operational, the team must hunt them down, one murder at a time. Returning characters include David Rossi (Mantegna), Jennifer “JJ” Jareau (Cook), Penelope Garcia (Vangsness), Tara Lewis (Tyler), Luke Alvez (Rodriguez), Emily Prentiss (Brewster), and Will LaMontagne Jr. (Stewart).

Showrunner Erica Messer spoke about the return of the Criminal Minds characters and the potential for future seasons in an interview with Deadline:

“I think it could go on for as long as this group wants to do it. We’re all energized, excited, and loving what we’re doing. I think as long as we want to keep doing it, I don’t see why we shouldn’t.”

Messer also touched on why two of the original show’s cast did not return for the revival. She said the following:

“[Matthew Gray Gubler has] been doing other projects and a lot of those were lining up during our window. Our window of shooting was just August to December 2. It was the same with Daniel Henney, who was working on The Wheel of Time. So I wasn’t able to get them, but I could get the six other cast members. They’ve never been better. They’re so happy. Their characters took the same time off that we had in real life, with the pandemic. The world has changed since we last saw the BAU. And because of that, the characters have changed. We needed to write to the reality of our everyone’s existence.”

It is possible that viewers could see the missing characters return in future seasons.

What do you think? Have you been watching this sequel series? Do you want to see more of Criminal Minds: Evolution on Paramount+?