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Published May 26, 2026, 2:20 PM EDT
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Criminal Minds is about to return for its 19th season, and the showrunner just teased what fans can expect from Elias Voit's storyline in the weeks ahead.
In an interview with ScreenRant's Grant Hermanns, Erica Messer, who started as a writer on Criminal Minds before being promoted to showrunner in 2011, opened up about how Voit will continue to thread the needle of "living this life of darkness and trying to be a good guy and be married with kids."
The true-crime podcast about Voit put the spotlight on him in a way he's never experienced before. He would have preferred "to have rotted away [with] nobody ever knowing who he was," according to Messer, but the podcast changed all that.
The public is very aware of who he is now (with the showrunner comparing him to Ted Bundy), so he's having to navigate that aspect as part of his journey as well.
"Voit is on this journey of never ever wanting anyone to know who he was or what he did, what a shameful thing he was doing, living this life of darkness and trying to be a good guy and be married with kids. But, ultimately, the darkness was really what drove him. And now he's a household name. Now, he's basically as famous as Ted Bundy, and there's the true-crime podcast about him led by our favorite, Paul F. Tompkins. It just felt like that was a real arc for him as well. He'd prefer to have rotted away [with] nobody ever knowing who he was, and now everyone knows who he is. So that's a big journey for him."
When Criminal Minds moved from CBS to Paramount+ and didn't need to follow certain broadcast network guidelines anymore, that allowed the producers and writers to explore darker storylines, including when it comes to Voit.
"Everything that Elias Voit has given us, as a team, have been things that we've never seen our heroes deal with," Messer explained. "They've never had the guy in the prison basement who they have to talk to because he knows something about Gold Star that we don't know, and having to break them."
During Criminal Minds season 18, Voit was attacked while in prison, which led him to experience a traumatic brain injury and amnesia. That incident still has a major impact on his life, which has Messer wondering if it's convenient that "he doesn't remember who he is, or does he really not remember who he is?"
"I feel like one of the things we wanted to do in Evolution was things we couldn't do in the broadcast version, which is really dig into a bad guy, a criminal mind, and how everything that Elias Voit has given us, as a team, have been things that we've never seen our heroes deal with. They've never had the guy in the prison basement who they have to talk to because he knows something about Gold Star that we don't know, and having to break them. And then we've never had to deal with a guy who had traumatic brain injury. Now, is it convenient he doesn't remember who he is, or does he really not remember who he is? So those were three seasons worth of, 'Well, we've never done that before.' So we really wanted to hit all of those."
All of these major events that Voit has brought to the series are storylines they've never focused on before. So when it came time to break down the arcs for season 19 (aka Criminal Minds: Evolution season 4), which premieres May 28, Messer wanted to explore copycats.
"There are fans of those killers who want to go out and emulate them, and we've never really done that for more than maybe an episode before," the showrunner said.
As a result of the copycat crimes, the team at the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) is forced to work with Voit in a brand-new way. Tara Lewis will step forward to lead the charge on the interviews instead of having David Rossi speak with Voit.
"Then season 19, we were like, 'Something that hugely happens in serial killer world is that there are copycats. There are fans of those killers who want to go out and emulate them, and we've never really done that for more than maybe an episode before.' So that's kind of what this season became about. It's sort of this forced relationship that the BAU has to have with him, and Tara takes it on. 'Rossi, you don't need to go talk to him. I'll do the interviews.'"
At the end of the day, the "foundation of the BAU is interviewing serial killers," according to Messer, which is why that will be at the center of Criminal Minds season 19. And with the position that Voit is in at the moment, it's the perfect time to lean into that arc.
"If not now, when, with Elias Voit? It's like, we've got him, we should use that," said Messer, who added that the hallucinations will continue to play a role going forward after that shocking vision in Voit's head from the Criminal Minds season 18 finale.
"We were able to play with the Hallucination Rossi in Voit's head," which "felt like a fun way to keep those two" together. Joe Mantegna and Zach Gilford are "so great together," so the show will "keep them in each other's orbit without it being repetitive."
"It's something that we've always said that the foundation of the BAU is interviewing serial killers. So we wanted to really, again, not just have that be in an episode, but have that be part of the spine of the season. And if not now, when, with Elias Voit? It's like, we've got him, we should use that. And then in that, we were able to play with the Hallucination Rossi in Voit's head, as a little callback to Hallucination Voit in Rossi's head. So that felt like a fun way to keep those two because they're always so good together. Joe and Zach are so great together and to keep them in each other's orbit without it being repetitive."
The Criminal Minds: Evolution cast includes Mantegna, Gilford, A. J. Cook, Kirsten Vangsness, Paget Brewster, Aisha Tyler, Adam Rodriguez and RJ Hatanaka.
The series aired for 15 seasons on CBS before coming to an end in 2020. It was then revived on Paramount+ just two years later and has been releasing new seasons nearly every year since then.
Now Criminal Minds: Evolution is coming back for 10 brand-new episodes beginning on May 28, with the finale set for July 23, and a 20th season has already been ordered by Paramount.
Criminal Minds season 19 premieres Thursday, May 28, 2026, on Paramount+.
Release Date September 22, 2005
Showrunner Erica Messer
Writers Bruce Zimmerman, Virgil Williams, Edward Allen Bernero, Janine Sherman Barrois, Chris Mundy, Simon Mirren, Debra J. Fisher, Kimberly A. Harrison, Jay Beattie, Dan Dworkin, Karen Maser, Oanh Ly, Stephanie Sengupta, Aaron Zelman, Kirsten Vangsness, Erica Meredith, Andi Bushell, Holly Harold, Alicia Kirk, Jeff Davis, Randy Huggins, Edward Napier, Jayne A. Archer, Chikodili Agwuna
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Kirsten Vangsness
Penelope Garcia
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Matthew Gray Gubler
Dr. Spencer Reid
English (US) ·