The BAU is getting an assist from a Desperate Housewives alum.
TVLine reports that Felicity Huffman has closed a deal to guest star during Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2, and her character has ties to the original series.
Huffman is playing Dr. Jill Gideon, described as “a brilliant biological psychiatrist who winds up helping the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit investigate a murderous conspiracy theory.”
If that surname sounds familiar, it’s because she’s the wife of Jason Gideon (Mandy Patinkin), so she has plenty of ties to the team.
Jill isn’t too fond of getting involved with the BAU because of her past, which concludes a “complicated history” with David Rossi (Joe Mantegna).
However, her expertise is needed because the team is struggling to crack open the Gold Star mystery.
Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2 has a massive mystery
We learned little details about the mystery during the revival series’ freshman season, and now, in Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2, we’re delving further into it.
Criminal Minds: Evolution launched in 2022, and a second season was ordered soon after. However, filming only recently got underway due to the dual Hollywood strikes.
Thankfully, new episodes are in production, and we should be getting them in the coming months because the show doesn’t take as long as some of the VFX-heavy other shows out there.
Criminal Minds: Evolution brought back original series stars Mantegna, Paget Brewster (as Prentiss), A.J. Cook (JJ), Kirsten Vangsness (Garcia), Aisha Tyler (Tara), and Adam Rodriguez (Luke).
Zach Gilford played a new villain named Elias Voit, who is expected to remain crucial to the story of the sophomore season.
Who won’t be returning for Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2?
Josh Stewart, who has played Will LaMontagne Jr. for years, is not returning. It’s unclear how his exit will be addressed on screen.
We already know that Shemar Moore is interested in returning after years away as Derek Morgan.
Not much time is expected to have passed between seasons because the severity of the questions posed by the previous mystery means many questions must be answered.
Criminal Minds originally aired on CBS for 15 seasons before being canceled in 2020, but the fans clamored for more, paving the way for Paramount+ to order a revival series.
Instead of being procedural, the show took a more serialized approach, which worked very well, offering something new for longtime fans.
That format is expected to continue throughout the second season.
Felicity Huffman almost headlined a spinoff of The Good Doctor
Huffman most recently starred in an episode of The Good Doctor in 2023, which was expected to lead to The Good Lawyer, a spinoff.
However, ABC nixed the spinoff and the mothership series following the end of the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strike.
Paramount+ has some exciting shows on the horizon, with the fourth and final season of EVIL returning in May and the fifth and final season of Star Trek: Discovery on deck for later this month.
Criminal Minds: Evolution is currently on hiatus. Season 2 is expected to premiere on Paramount+ in 2024.