Criminal Minds Season 17 to Begin Production at ‘Breakneck Pace’ in January

Michael Ausiello
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A killer production schedule awaits the cast and crew of Criminal Minds now that Hollywood’s strikepocalypse is over.

Franchise star Paget Brewster announced on X (formerly known as Twitter) that the Paramount+ procedural’s delayed second revival season (and 17th overall) will “start filming in mid-January,” adding that shooting will take place at a “breakneck pace” in an effort to “get episodes to you ASAP.”

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Meanwhile, TVLine can confirm that Season 2 of Criminal Minds: Evolution — much like Season 1 — will consist of 10 episodes.

Originally, a well-placed source told TVLine that the new season — which was greenlit a year ago — was to start shooting in April 2023. However, Paramount, nervous about a possible WGA strike, put a pin in pre-production. June 2023 was then penciled in as the new start date, but the WGA strike soon enough became a reality, kicking off on May 2. The subsequent SAG-AFTRA strike further delayed the new season’s start date.

Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 1 found the BAU’s elite profilers going up against “their greatest threat yet” — Elias Voit, an UnSub who had spent the COVID pandemic cultivating a network of serial killers. In addition to Brewster’ Prentiss, the team in question was comprised of fellow franchise vets Joe Mantegna (Rossi), A.J. Cook (JJ), Kirsten Vangsness (Garcia), Aisha Tyler (Tara) and Adam Rodriguez (Luke), while Friday Night Lights vet Zach Gilford played the aforementioned Elias.

“Everybody in the main cast [of Evolution] is coming back,” Criminal Minds showrunner Erica Messer told TVLine during a February 2023 finale post mortem Q&A. The EP also shared that whereas Evolution‘s maiden run focused a singular UnSub, “We’re going to do a hybrid” the next time around, adding, “In the first four episodes [we’ve outlined] so far, two are a little bit serial[ized], and two are not.”

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