Matthew Gray Gubler reunites with CBS to play Einstein's great-grandson

If anyone was going to be cast as a descendant of the late, great, and apparently very sexy Albert Einstein, Matthew Gray Gubler was the perfect choice. Not only did he play a similarly enigmatic genius for 15 seasons on Criminal Minds, but he’s also kind of just like that in real life. Earlier this year, Gubler stopped by The A.V. Club to chat about his illustrated book The Little Kid With The Big Green Hand, during which he quipped that “all great manifestoes [contain]… a confused weiner dog and a sunbathing worm” and that William Shakespeare wrote Bunnicula, a children’s series about a rabbit vampire. This series might be his magnum opus. 

According to Deadline, the pilot, which brings Gubler back to CBS for the first time since Criminal Minds, is currently being called Einstein. It hails from the same creative team as Monk; Andy Breckman is credited as creator and executive producer, while Randy Zisk will direct and executive produce. The trade describes the new procedural, which was adapted from a German series of the same name, as a “drama with comedic undertones.”

A synopsis of the show reads, “Brilliant but directionless, the great grandson of Albert Einstein (Gubler) spends his days as a comfortably tenured professor until his bad boy antics land him in trouble with the law and he is pressed into service helping a local police detective solve her most puzzling cases.”

Gubler hasn’t been on the small screen in a number of years. He didn’t participate in 2022 Criminal Minds spinoff, Criminal Minds: Evolution, but he has had a handful of roles since departing the show, including a recurring part on Hulu’s Dollface, which ended in 2022. While he’s primarily known as a TV actor, Gubler actually has far more film credits. In recent years, he appeared in movies like Endings, Beginnings, Horse Girl, and King Knight, before taking a brief hiatus, during which he wrote his book.