How Criminal Minds' Cast Can Return For Season 16 (Where They Left Off)

The confirmation of Criminal Minds' season 16 means attention now turns to which original cast members will return, and how to reintegrate them.

The rebooted Criminal Minds is returning for season 16, and here's how each confirmed cast member and character can pick up right where they left off. 2021 marked the first year Criminal Minds was not on the air since September 2005, with the series finale arriving in 2020 and marking the end of a stellar 15-year run. However, per Deadline, this hiatus proved to be very short-lived indeed, with a ten-episode revival of the series confirmed as in development by Paramount+ in February 2021.

Six original Criminal Minds cast members are poised to enter negotiations with the series' new streaming home Paramount+. These Criminal Minds stars consist of Joe Mantegna, Kirsten Vangsness, Adam Rodriguez, A.J. Cook, Aisha Tyler, and Paget Brewster. Two fan-favorite cast members currently not in the frame to return at this stage of development are Matthew Gray Gubler, who plays Dr. Spencer Reid for the entirety of Criminal Minds' first 15 seasons, and Daniel Henney, who plays Matt Simmons. Henney is currently tied to Amazon Prime Video's highly-successful fantasy series The Wheel of Time, while Gubler's reasons for not returning to the Criminal Minds setup remain unknown to date.

The question of how each of the confirmed characters can return during Criminal Minds season 16 boils down to where each character's respective story arcs left off. Faces such as Jennifer Jareau (A.J. Cook) will slip back easily into the reboot's setting given their continued association with the BAU, while other characters such as Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) may require a more detailed explanation of their journey back to Quantico. Here's how each of the six confirmed Criminal Minds characters can return for season 16, as well as where each character's storyline ended in the season 15 finale.

David Rossi

Joe Mantegna's David Rossi has been a mainstay of the Criminal Minds franchise since 2007 when he made his first appearance in season 3, episode 6, "About Face." The Criminal Minds finale sees Rossi still wrestling with whether or not to re-retire from the BAU after being shot by an UnSub and reminded of his own mortality at the end of season 15. Ultimately, Rossi reneges on his oft-planned retirement due to how much the department means to him, instead using his prearranged retirement party as a fitting send-off for Penelope Garcia. Rossi's return to the fray is perhaps the easiest of all to orchestrate in Criminal Minds season 16, given he canonically still leads the BAU team and remains as fierce a special agent as he was in 2007 when Agent Hotchner (Thomas Gibson) coaxed him out of his early retirement plans.

Penelope Garcia

As aforementioned, one character that does leave the BAU after a historic 15-year stint is Penelope Garcia, with the epilogue of season 15 focusing almost entirely on her fan-favorite character. Penelope decides to move on from the BAU, taking a job at a non-profit (conveniently located near Rossi's house), and also breaks her character's cycle of (often self-enforced) loneliness by accepting love-interest Luke Alvez's (Adam Rodriguez) date proposal at the end of the season. Bringing Penelope back for Criminal Minds season 16 is a smart move from the reboot, particularly given her importance to the series as the emotional, human core of the BAU. Penelope's return, in stark contrast to Rossi's, is the most difficult to envision, with her character leaving the BAU to protect her mental health at the end of season 15. A likely option for the Criminal Minds showrunners is to have Penelope return through her continued emotional attachment to the BAU, with her character unlikely to find the same level of familial connection at her non-profit job as she did with Rossi and company.

Luke Alvez

Adam Rodriguez's Luke Alvez represents the new, youthful core of the BAU after his character was introduced to fill the void left by Derek Morgan's (Shemar Moore) departure at the end of season 11. Alvez goes through his own trials and tribulations across a three-season character arc, with his greatest challenge arriving after he and Matt Simmons (The Wheel of Time's Daniel Henney) are kidnapped in season 15, episode 5, "Ghost." Like Rossi before him, Alvez ends the Criminal Minds finale still working for the BAU, making his re-integration into the series a seamless proposition for season 16.

Jennifer Jareau

Jennifer Jareau's arc is one of Criminal Minds' most extensive examples of character development, with JJ undergoing three title changes and several harrowing undercover assignments in addition to starting a family with her eventual husband, Will LaMontagne, Jr. (Josh Stewart). Jareau's story in Criminal Minds season 15 consists of resolving her unrequited love for Spencer Reid, recovering from being shot in the season opener, and wrestling with taking a new job in New Orleans that would be more suitable for her young family. Ultimately, the finale's final scene as the BAU team toasts Garcia confirms Jareau is staying at Quantico, setting up her easy return as part of Criminal Minds' season 16 core agent team.

Tara Lewis

Another returning Criminal Minds reboot character is Dr. Tara Lewis (Aisha Tyler), who joined the BAU permanently from season 12 onwards after her heroics apprehending several vicious offenders. Given her dismay at temporarily leaving the BAU in season 11, Lewis ends Criminal Minds season 15 exactly where she deserves to be surrounded by Rossi and the rest of her colleagues at Garcia's farewell party. Lewis' frequent trips away from the BAU to interview serial killers for research purposes not only allow her character's inclusion in the storyline to be flexible as Criminal Minds season 16 begins, but can also be a strong source of narrative options for the Criminal Minds showrunners should they wish to explore more of the psychological cat-and-mouse games that characterized Lewis' early seasons in the series.

Emily Prentiss

The final returning core character for Criminal Minds season 16 is Emily Prentiss (Community's Paget Brewster), who is canonically the current BAU Unit Chief. Prentiss' season 15 ending carries shades of her abrupt season 7 departure following JJ's wedding (also in Rossi's backyard), after which she did not return to the team until season 12 some five years later. This time around, however, Prentiss' season 15 story ends on a more positive note, with the Unit Chief able to keep her job despite her failings in the series' penultimate Everett Lynch (Michael Mosley) case, as well shown house-hunting with her new partner Andrew Mendoza (Stephen Bishop) after famously struggling to cultivate meaningful outside of work relationships. Like many of her colleagues listed above, Prentiss' deep roots at Quantico means she will likely feature heavily in the Criminal Minds season 16 reboot in her Unit Chief role.

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