The sixteenth season of the American police procedural crime drama television series Criminal Minds, now subtitled Evolution, follows members of the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) as they are faced with a network of serial killers built during the COVID-19 pandemic. The season serves as a first season revival of the series after its original run on CBS ended two years earlier.
The season premiered on November 24, 2022 on Paramount+ in the U.S. and on Disney+ in other regions on November 25, 2022. In January 2023, Evolution was renewed for another season.
Contents
Cast
Main
Joe Mantegna as David Rossi
A. J. Cook as Jennifer "JJ" Jareau
Kirsten Vangsness as Penelope Garcia
Aisha Tyler as Dr. Tara Lewis
Adam Rodriguez as Luke Alvez
Paget Brewster as Emily Prentiss
Recurring
Zach Gilford as Elias Voit
Josh Stewart as Will LaMontagne Jr.
Nicholas D'Agosto as Deputy Director Doug Bailey
Nicole Pacent as Rebecca Wilson
Ryan-James Hatanaka as Tyler Green
Kiele Sanchez as Sydney Voit
Monnae Michaell as Attorney General Louise Davis
Guest
Gail O'Grady as Krystall Rossi
Luke Benward as Benjamin Reeves
Beth Broderick as Senator Martha Reeves
Silas Weir Mitchell as Cyrus Lebrun
Jonathan Del Arco as Silvio Herrera
Kerry Knuppe as Ramona Havener
Production
Development
In February 2021, a revival of Criminal Minds was announced to be in early development at Paramount+ with 10 episodes planned. The series was confirmed to be still in development in February 2022. Paramount+ officially gave a series order in July 2022. The official title of the new series was revealed in September 2022.
In May 2023, CBS Home Entertainment announced that Evolution would be released to Blu-ray and DVD on June 20, 2023; with the home release officially dubbing it the "sixteenth season" of the series overall.
Casting
Most of the main cast of the last season of the previous series returned, with the exception of Matthew Gray Gubler and Daniel Henney. On September 4, 2022, Josh Stewart confirmed he would reprise his role as Will LaMontagne Jr. On September 9, 2022, Zach Gilford was cast in a recurring role.
Filming
Filming began in August 2022. In September 2022, Joe Mantegna announced that he would be directing an episode this season. Later that month, it was confirmed that A. J. Cook, Aisha Tyler and Adam Rodriguez would also be directing episodes this season.