Criminal Minds Season 16 Release Date, Plot, and More

Is the 16th season of Criminal Minds revival still scheduled to air on Paramount+? We are aware that there has been some silent time. The project appeared to be dead at first, but we later received confirmation that it is still very much in progress. The good news on this front as of right now is as follows: The program is currently in development. We wouldn’t anticipate it airing any time soon, though.

After a spectacular 15-year run, Criminal Minds will be off the air for the first time since September 2005 in 2021, when the series finale was released. Deadline reports that this break was, in fact, extremely brief, with a ten-episode resurrection of the series announced as being in production by Paramount+ for February 2021. Who will return for Criminal Minds season 16? What will the plot be? Here’s everything we know about Criminal Minds season 16.

Criminal Minds Season 16 Release Date

Criminal Minds Season 16 Release Date
Criminal Minds Season 16 Release Date

According to sources, Criminal Minds Season 16 will air on the CBS Network. Filming starts this summer. Just one year after Criminal Minds Season 15 ended, the show’s creator, Paramount+, confirmed the renewal.

It was earlier said that the show was in its initial phases of creation and that the storyline and choice of which cast members would rejoin will be made in order to make the experience meaningful and give viewers something to look forward to.

It appears that the show is in its proposal phase, and the definite release dates haven’t been disclosed yet. Any such information is anticipated to be revealed shortly as the development picks up steam.

Criminal Minds Season 16 Cast

Criminal Minds Season 16 Cast
Criminal Minds Season 16 Cast

Any web series’ star cast deserves a large share of responsibility and credit for a show’s success. The same can be said about Criminal Minds. Despite a number of cast changes throughout the course of the show’s fifteen seasons, the following individuals may be counted on to return for Criminal Minds Season 16:

  • A.J. Cook as Jennifer Jareau- In seasons 1 through 5, JJ, an FBI Supervisory Special Agent, and former BAU communications liaison, functioned as the group’s contact to regional police forces. She falls in love with and marries William LaMontagne, a detective with the New Orleans Police Department. Henry LaMontagne and Michael LaMontagne are their two sons. The real-life sons of A.J. Cook portray both boys.
  • Kirsten Vangsness as Penelope Garcia- Garcia joins the BAU after drawing attention to herself as an underground hacker by unauthorized accessing some of their equipment; she is given a job in lieu of a jail sentence. Garcia is a BAU technical analyst and BAU communications liaison. She used pink stationery to send Hotch her CV. She mostly helps the team from her Quantico computer lab, but she occasionally goes with them to the field when her expertise is needed. She is the group leader for a support group for people who have lost a loved one. When she was an adolescent and had skipped her curfew, her parents were killed by a drunk driver when they were out hunting for her.
  • Paget Brewster as Emily Prentiss- Chief of the BAU Unit and a supervising special agent. Elizabeth Prentiss, an ambassador, is the mother of Prentiss. After SSA Elle Greenaway departs the BAU, Emily is given permission to join by Section Chief Erin Strauss. The idea was for Emily to disclose any issues with the BAU, but she stayed devoted to the group and refused to do so, even jokingly threatening to leave. Emily is also proficient in a number of other languages, including Spanish, French, Greek, Arabic, and Italian. She once spoke Russian fluently but has since lost understanding.
  • Joe Mantegna as David Rossi- supervising senior special agent. Rossi is a highly skilled profiler who originally worked for the BAU at its inception. After taking early retirement in 1997, Rossi used his time to create books and give lectures about criminal analysis before voluntarily returning shortly after SSA Jason Gideon left the unit in 2007. He had three marriages, and his lucrative writing profession has made him immensely rich.
  • Aisha Tyler as Tara Lewis- supervisory special agent and forensic psychologist. Lewis is a psychologist who focuses on the use of forensic psychology in the criminal justice system. Her ambition was to study psychopaths up and personal, and thanks to her training in psychology and her time spent working for the FBI, she was able to do just that. It was her responsibility to question and interrogate them to discover whether they were competent to face trial. In the eleventh season, Lewis filled in for JJ and Kate when they were both on maternity leave.
  • Adam Rodriguez as Luke Alvez- supervising special agent and member of the fugitive task group. Alvez is a participant in the FBI fugitive task team, which collaborates with the BAU to apprehend the serial killers who fled in the season 11 finale. He collaborates with the BAU to apprehend the “Crimson King,” one of the escapees who assaulted Alvez’s former partner, in the season 12 opener.
  • Daniel Henney as Matt Simmons- former International Response Team member and supervising special agent. Simmons was an IRT employee before becoming a special operations agent. With his wife Kristy, Simmons is the father of two boys and identical twin girls, all of whom are under the age of three. He had served in a special operations team previously, and his time there helped him develop his profiling abilities. Matthew Gray Gubler may return as Dr. Spencer Reid-
  • Jane Lynch as Diana Reid- the mother of Dr. Spencer Reid, a member of the BAU team. She has a high IQ, much like her kid. She used to teach literature at a university but now lives in a sanitarium in Las Vegas due to schizophrenia. Spencer was 18 years old when he put her there. Because he was unable to handle her condition and the responsibility of safeguarding her after she witnessed a murder, her husband, William Reid, fled before she was even diagnosed. When taking her medicine, she is functional, although she regularly reverts to her time at the university.
  • Josh Stewart as William LaMontagne Jr.- is the spouse of SSA Jennifer Jareau and the biological father of Henry and Michael, Jennifer’s children. Jennifer and Will first spoke when she was on a case in his hometown.
  • Kelly Frye as Kristy Simmons- The wife and mother of Matt Simmons’ four (eventually five) children.

Criminal Minds season 16 Plot

Criminal Minds season 16 Plot
Criminal Minds season 16 Plot

The show centers on a team of criminal profilers that assist the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit in investigating crimes and identifying suspects. Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner and subsequently Emily Prentiss are in charge of the team’s management.

On the squad was Jason Gideon, the BAU’s creator and the greatest profiler in the Bureau; Derek Morgan, a former Chicago Police officer and expert on crimes motivated by obsessions; Spencer Reid, a specialist in geographic profiling; JJ, the team’s communications coordinator, and profiler; Elle Greenway, a specialist in sexual crimes; David Rossi, a specialist in criminal profiling; Ashley Seaver, a rookie FBI agent; Alex Blake, a linguist; Kate Callahan, an undercover agent; Tara Lewis, a forensic psychologist; Luke Alvez, a specialist in fugitive tracking and profiling; Counter intelligence expert Stephen Walker; Expert profiler Matt Simmons.

Criminal Minds Season 16 is still in the pitch phase, as previously noted, thus there is no confirmation of the narrative because the show’s writers and producers have not released any information.

With only 10 episodes, it was determined that Season fifteen could not finish the complete plot. As a result, Criminal  Minds Season 16 may now feature all the remnants from Season 15 together with a strong new mystery.

It makes sense for the episodes to advance and develop the preexisting ideas further, therefore a relaunch of the show is anticipated to start immediately after the final episode of Season 15. The only way to re-engage devoted viewers and re-engage them in the series after a period of delays is to do this.

Criminal Minds Season 15 Recap

Criminal Minds Season 15 Recap
Criminal Minds Season 15 Recap

With the news of Criminal Minds season 16 coming soon, you need to jog your memory. Here’s how Criminal Minds Season 15 went.

Episode 1- Rossi is certain that the disfigured victims that start showing up in the Washington, D.C., region are the work of Everett Lynch, also known as “The Chameleon,” the serial murderer who came close to killing him before disappearing. Reid and JJ struggle to handle a problematic circumstance in the meanwhile.

Episode 2- Following an altercation with Everett Lynch that left one member of the BAU injured, the team’s search for him and his daughter Grace continues. Reid, who is still reeling from what happened, goes to see his mother Diana as she has a brief epiphany.

Episode 3- The BAU looks for a serial bomber who seems to be picking his victims based on a personal vendetta after a mail explosion in Tennessee leaves a mother and daughter hospitalized.

Episode 4- Garcia becomes directly involved during the team’s Saturday off after learning that a competitor in her hacking competition has a stalker, and Reid meets Maxine.

Episode 5- The BAU recognizes the crimes mirror those of a sniper they pursued fifteen years ago when several individuals are shot in a string of shootings in Des Plaines, Illinois. However, their perception of the deaths significantly alters when two of its own are abducted.

Episode 6- When a father and daughter are abducted in Washington, D.C., Reid is compelled to engage hitwoman Cat Adams is yet another altercation, endangering his intentions to go on a date with Maxine.

Episode 7- The BAU connects the killings to a mental hallucination using false memories and the Schrödinger equation after three men are brutally murdered in Denver. Prentiss, who is in a long-distance relationship with Special Agent Andrew Mendoza, is being forced to consider her future with him.

Episode 8- When the deaths of businessmen and prostitutes are discovered in Beaumont, Texas, the BAU is faced with a murderer who has contradictory motives. In the meantime, Prentiss and J.J. are both struggling with choices they need to make about unexpected employment offers.

Episode 9- One year after Rossi’s near-death encounter, the BAU goes to Reno, Nevada, to investigate a tip regarding Everett Lynch, aka “The Chameleon,” and determine his brand-new goals. They must deal with Lynch’s mother, though, who has her own purpose and produces a surprising result.

Episode 10- The remainder of the team continues their search for Lynch despite Reid being hospitalized due to a brain injury sustained during the BAU’s standoff with Lynch, which results in a bloody and dramatic finale. Rossi is thinking about retiring, and Garcia is making a decision that will change his life and the destiny of the BAU forever.

Criminal Minds Season 16 Where to Watch

While Criminal Minds season 16 is not out yet, you can catch all the previous episodes on Amazon Prime Video, Hotstar, and Hulu.

Criminal Minds season 16 will premiere on Paramount+.

That is all we know so far! For more updates about Criminal Minds Season 16, stay tuned to this space.

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