When Criminal Minds came to an end after Season 15, it seemed to be over. Then it got a second life on Paramount+ under the revival title Criminal Minds: Evolution. However, it always felt like just a continuation, and it didn’t take long for Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 1 to turn into Criminal Minds Season 16.
It’s been a good run, with Season 20 picked up earlier in 2026, just ahead of the Season 19 premiere. Fans were able to go into the 19th season knowing that a cliffhanger didn’t matter, as there was more to come. There’s been some disappointing news since.
Criminal Minds Season 20 is set to be the last, and it will premiere in 2027. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Paramount+ has decided that it’s time to bring the crime drama to an end, and it’s not something showrunner Erica Messer seemed to plan for.
In a statement, she shared that she and the team were “suddenly navigating the end of this chapter.” Production recently wrapped, so this could suggest that there is a cliffhanger ending to come. Paramount+ hasn’t said why it’s canceled the series, but it comes as the merger with Warner Bros. Discovery has been allowed to go ahead.
There isn’t a premiere date yet for the now-final season of the BAU series. Most of the time, the series has followed a yearly release, but the writers’ and actors’ strikes of 2023 delayed production on Season 18. With production already complete, it’s possible that an early- to mid-2027 release date is in the works.
The “this chapter” is notable, though. Messer and the team have been passionate about continuing the stories of the BAU. Even when the show was canceled on CBS, everyone got to work to find a way to bring it back. Could there be another way to revive it? There have been two attempts to create spinoffs in the past, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior and Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, which lasted for one season and two seasons respectively.
Joe Mantegna, A.J. Cook, Kirsten Vangsness, Aisha Tyler RJ Hatanaka, Adam Rodriguez, and Paget Brewster are all set to return to the series for the final season. The only actor confirmed not to be coming back to Criminal Minds Season 20, who has been a long-standing presence in the revival, is Zach Gilford as Voit, who sacrificed his own freedom and comfort for his daughter Holly after taking the fall for killing the UnSub to protect her.