Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2 Gets Major Setback Due to Writers’ Strike

The second season of Criminal Minds: Evolution, the Paramount+ revival of CBS’s long-running crime series, is in limbo after the Writers Guild of America strike has seemingly put the start of production on indefinite pause. It is not yet clear how many scripts are done, but it seems as though either the second season is not completely finished, or that the producers feel like they need the ability to rewrite during production. The production itself, which was originally expected to be underway by now, has been delayed twice — with the latest delay apparently being indefinite. Few details are available, and it isn’t yet known whether a lengthy writers’ strike might lead them to start production on the first few episodes to keep the content mill moving.

According to TVLine, the original start date was in April, then June, before being pushed way back. The comments come from an unnamed source, though, not from Paramount+ itself.

“We’re very thankful that they came to everyone who was in the cast for the last four seasons — they came to all of us and said, ‘would you all come back?’” Brewster told ComicBook in a 2022 interview. “And every one of us who can, who isn’t already signed on to another show, we’ve been negotiating this. We’re all hoping that it would happen and that we would be on Paramount+ as a streaming show, which would be a very different platform from what we had as a CBS show on network TV. We’re doing our darnedest, and everyone’s trying to make this happen. We really enjoy each other, and we really enjoy how much our fans like the show. Now we have all these new fans, who have been binging it on Netflix, in a different age group. When people used to say to me, ‘You’re on that show Criminal Minds,’ I’d say ‘yeah, your grandma watches it.’ Now it’s a whole new generation and we have teenagers watching. It’s crazy.”

You can see the official synopsis for the series below.

In Criminal Minds, an elite squad of FBI profilers analyzes the country’s most-twisted criminal minds, anticipating the perpetrators’ next moves before they can strike again. Each member of the “mind hunter” team brings his or her expertise to pinpoint predators’ motivations and identify emotional triggers to stop them. The core group includes an official profiler who is highly skilled at getting into the minds of criminals, a quirky genius, the former media liaison who manages to adeptly balance family life and the job, and a computer wizard.