Matthew Gray Gubler will finally reprise his role as wunderkind Dr. Spencer Reid in the upcoming season of Criminal Minds: Evolution.
The actor confirmed the news in an interview with Italian publication Ansa, where he announced he recently “shot a new episode of Criminal Minds.”
Criminal Minds: Evolution, the Paramount+ reboot that is a continuation of the CBS drama, recently wrapped filming on Season 18. The show was revived on Paramount+ just two years after it ended, with original cast members Joe Mantegna, Paget Brewster Aisha Tyler, Kristen Vangsness and Adam Rodriguez returning.
Per TVLine, the actor is expected to appear in only one episode of the new season. A source told the outlet that Gubler’s highly anticipated return to the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) became possible when “fortunately, schedules aligned.”
Gubler was a fan-favorite on the long-running crime procedural. Dr. Reid is described as an awkward kid-genius with several advance degrees under his belt that help him solve even the most difficult cases with the BAU.
He and A.J. Cook were the only original cast members to stay on the show through its entire 15-season run, so his absence was certainly felt when Gubler became one of the few cast members to not appear in the reboot.
Instead, the show has alluded to Reid being away on “a special assignment” with fellow Special Agent Matt Simmons (Daniel Henney).
But Gubler has previously expressed interest in appearing on the show.
“I would be honored. I would absolutely love that,” he said during a 2023 appearance on Ireland’s The Six O’Clock Show. “They did a newer spinoff of the show, but it was filming during a time when I was shooting something else. But I can’t wait — hopefully it will soon work out.”
Showrunner Erica Messer has also confirmed that Reid and Simmons’ desks “are still there, still have stuff on it,” to hint that these beloved characters will always have a place on the show if they wanted to return.
Fans may get to see much of Dr. Reid in Criminal Minds: Evolution, but Gubler will be playing a similar role in the upcoming CBS show Einstein, in which he’ll be playing Albert Einstein’s “brilliant but directionless” great-grandson who gets in trouble with the law.
A premiere date for the new season of Criminal Minds: Evolution has not been announced yet.