Criminal Minds finally lured back the Gubler

Three seasons into reviving the massively successful procedural series for a Paramount+ afterlife, the producers of Criminal Minds: Evolution have finally landed themselves a Gubler. That would be original series star Matthew Gray Gubler, who has so far been the only major member of the show’s final cast not to make a return visit to the series since it came back to life, reportedly due to scheduling issues. (Before that, Gubler held the distinction of being the only actor to appear in every season of the show, playing beloved criminal profiler Spencer Reid.)

Said scheduling issues have apparently now been resolved, with Deadline reporting that Gubler will be appearing in “part” of one episode of the revived show’s third season. (Which feels a little “Kim Cattrall phones in an And Just Like That…” cameo, but we’ll withhold judgment until the episode actually airs.) Within the lore of the series, Reid has been on a “special assignment” ever since the show came back, explaining why he’s not there to help Joe Mantegna and Paget Brewster catch all those dang serial killers.

As for what’s been filling Gubler’s schedule up, we already know at least one answer: It was previously reported that he’s working on a new TV procedural called Einstein, from the creators of Monk. We had missed the news of Einstein‘s announcement when it made headlines this October, which we know because, had we noticed it, we would have spent the last two months telling everybody we know about it because, like, get a load: “In it, 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.” God, that’s something, huh? We haven’t felt this way since that time CBS revealed it was making a legal drama starring a modern-day adult Tom Sawyer. (Tragically, never brought to series. R.I.P. Tom Lawyer.)

Criminal Minds: Evolution wrapped its second season back in August; season 3 will presumably arrive some time in 2025.