Last night’s Criminal Minds finale spring-boarded the show into Season 12, laying the foundations of the procedural’s most serialized season yet.
While the show has yet to be officially renewed, EP Erica Messer is confident Minds has many more stories left and expects a renewal decision by May 18, per TVGuide:
You and I will probably hear [about Season 12] at the same time. They’ll let us know right before upfronts, before they announce it to everybody. We will get the courtesy heads-up. There are discussions being had that are above my pay grade, so I don’t know when we’ll hear, but I can tell you that creatively we’re all incredibly excited for Season 12. We’re certainly not running out of stories. The older we get, the more invested we are in these heroes and the bad guys they catch every week. I think we’ve proven with 255 episodes that we have many more stories we can tell. It’s more of that kind of thing right now of dotting Is and crossing Ts than anything else. We don’t have big negotiations [with the actors] this year or anything like that. We’re just waiting patiently.
On what Season 12 will look like:
It’s funny — Breen and I were just working on it yesterday. All the writers are on hiatus until June, but we wanted to get a jumpstart on what we think the shape of the season will be. It’s going to be a really fun, different year. I think, creatively, we’re both really excited. I feel like with our amazing fan base who watches every week, you can get away with a little more serialized storytelling than when we started the series. We’re excited to catch these bad guys all over again. Some we will have known, like Mr. Scratch, and others will be bad guys that maybe some of the team hasn’t caught before. That allows us to have some creative license. And of course there will be our case of the week that may or may not be running parallel with catching a guy who escaped. I feel like, going into Season 12, we’ve had more opportunities for stories than we’ve had in a really long time.
Stay tuned as we monitor the official status of Criminal Minds Season 12…
alan says
Renew,renew,renew!!!!What a fabulous show.Amazing how close the team is in chemistry.Rossi says it best when he says that his team is his family in the way they care about each other and have each others back.Bring back Emily and Kate.Grandfathered may be cancelled.
if so,bring back Emily from London.She was the best.CBS screwed up that decision tp let her go.
Dan G. Rawlings says
I agree bring back Emily. What about Elle?
Dan G. Rawlings says
This season was really good. Finished strong. I hope it is renewed and probably will be as it is a lower cost show to produce i would imagine compared to Supergirl which needs more special effects.
Anyone know the story why Gideon was killed off? Did Manny Patakin refuse to come back? or?? It would of been nice to see him once more..
Eclectic says
It was renewed!!!! I’m so happy! Been a fan season one. I would love to see Paget Brewster back. I’m loving Aisha Tyler as Tara. I think she is an amazing fit! Better than any in the past.
I know Mandy Patankin left because he felt the show was too dark and violent. IIRC, he left rather suddenly. Mr Patankin has been described as difficult to work with creatively. I don’t know if that’s true, I don’t know any of the parties involved. I do know he went on to star in Homeland. Go figure. Either way, he will always be a genius in my eyes. He will always be Inago Montoya. “You killed my father, now prepare to die.”