A revival of “Criminal Minds” is under development at Paramount Plus, Variety learned from the sources.
As the project is still in its early stages, details are still being finalized, including which members of the original cast would return. However, sources say that executive producer and executive producer of “Criminal Minds” Erica Messer would return to work on the revival. As in the original series, CBS Studios and ABC Signature (formerly ABC Studios) would produce.
Paramount Plus and ABC Signature officials declined to comment. Messer representatives did not immediately respond to Variety’s request for comment.
Created by Jeff Davis, “Criminal Minds” was an incredibly popular procedure for CBS, with 15 seasons and 324 episodes. The series finished airing on the network in February 2020.
The program accompanied a team of FBI profilers who worked for the Behavioral Analysis Unit. Throughout his career, the cast included stars such as Mandy Patinkin, Shemar Moore, Joe Mantegna, Aisha Tyler, Matthew Gray Gubler, Thomas Gibson, Lola Glaudini, Paget Brewster and several others. The program spawned two spinoffs – “Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior” and “Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders”, the last of which was created by Messer.
A revival of “Criminal Minds” would be one of several ongoing projects at Paramount Plus, which is how the streaming service CBS All Access will be renamed now that the Viacom-CBS merger is complete. It was announced last week that the revival of MTV’s reality show “The Real World” is scheduled on the streamer, with the cast of the show’s first season coming together for “The Real World Homecoming: New York”. It was previously reported that a documentary series entitled “The Real Criminal Minds” will premiere on Paramount Plus as well, while a prequel to the popular Paramount Network drama “Yellowstone” is also in the works on the streamer.
The fact that the revival of “Criminal Minds” is underway on the streaming service, not on CBS, also occurs while CBS is planning expansions of the “FBI” and “NCIS” franchises with the potential derivatives “NCIS: Hawaii” and “FBI: International. “