The long and twisting saga involving Paramount+’s Criminal Minds has arrived at a happy ending.
TVLine has learned exclusively that the streamer has placed a 10-episode series order for a continuation of the long-running CBS procedural.
On Tuesday, series vet Joe Mantegna teased the series’ return on social media, posting a photo of himself inside a soundstage alongside the caption, “Just doing a little inspection today for an upcoming project. #criminal minds.”
Reps for Paramount+ declined to comment for this story.
In addition to Mantegna, returning cast members include Adam Rodriguez, A.J. Cook, Aisha Tyler, Paget Brewster and Kirsten Vangsness. (Matthew Gray Gubler and Daniel Henney will not be back.)
Despite buzz that the project was bound for the morgue, Tanya Giles, Chief Programmi’ng Officer at ViacomCBS Streaming, told reporters last January at the Television Critics Assoc. Winter Press Tour that, “We are still very much in development on Criminal Minds. We’ll have more to share soon on that, but it is alive and well.”
Last summer, Brewster, who was one of several vets of the OG CBS series being eyed to appear in the follow-up, announced on social media that the project is knocking on the Grim Reaper’s door. “Sadly, we think it’s dead,” she declared on Twitter in response to a fan’s query about the status of the project. “I’ll let you know if there is any progress, but it seems unlikely. Which is a bummer.”
It was roughly two years ago ago that Criminal Minds aired its Season 15/series finale; TVLine readers gave it an average grade of “B,” while we handed it a less enthusiastic “C.”