Criminal Minds' Joe Mantegna Sparks Hope for Rossi & Reid Reunion
It looks like a beloved character may finally return.
Popular crime procedurals tend to lose in quality and appeal over time, but Criminal Minds has luckily avoided that fate. Instead of sticking to the same formula year after year, creator Jeff Davis decided to surprise the longtime viewers and turn his project into a prestige crime streaming show in 2022.
Needless to say, fans loved the change, as the show began to feel much more mature and focused, and the freedom that streaming provided allowed the writers to finally tackle some very heavy topics. However, there was only one major problem with the reboot — not all the original cast members were willing to return to the project.
While A. J. Cook, Kirsten Vangsness, Paget Brewster, and Joe Mantegna all agreed to reprise their roles for Criminal Minds: Evolution, Matthew Gray Gubler declined the offer, leaving fans in the dark about the fate of his iconic character, Dr. Spencer Reid.
Obviously, people are pretty bummed about the absence of such a beloved character, and it looks like Joe Mantegna is well aware of it, sharing a picture with Gubler on his social media.
Even though Mantegna did not explicitly state that Gubler would appear in the upcoming season of Criminal Minds, some people immediately thought so, arguing that the two actors meeting could not be a coincidence when the whole fandom is waiting for Dr. Reid to finally return.
Unfortunately, no one from the cast or creative team has confirmed Gubler's return. That's certainly a shame because Dr. Reid was one of the biggest reasons to watch the show for many fans, with Gubler's quirky character making even the most boring scenes feel special.
What's even more frustrating, we still don't know when Season 2 of Criminal Minds will premiere. The production for the new season started back in April this year but was put on hold due to the WGA strike, which prevented the series' writers from working on the scripts.
Now that the SAG-AFTRA members have joined the writers on the picket lines, it's predicted that the show might return sometime in 2024, which is quite a long wait.