This story details plot points from the July 23 season finale of “Criminal Minds: Evolution.”
Zach Gilford won’t be returning to “Criminal Minds: Evolution” for Season 20. The actor’s exit was confirmed with the Paramount+ drama’s July 23 finale, which closed out his four-season run as Elias Voit, the killer-turned-informant who has anchored much of the show’s storytelling since the revival began, according to TV Insider.
In the finale, Voit’s standoff with rival serial killer James Crowley (Justin Kirk) ends with Crowley dead — killed not by Voit but by his daughter, Holly, to protect her father. Voit takes the blame for the killing anyway and is shipped off to an undisclosed high-security federal penitentiary to serve out 63 consecutive life sentences, according to E! Online.
Gilford, who joined the show when it relaunched in 2022, told TV Insider the character had simply run its course — the writers realized there wasn’t really anywhere else to take Voit once he could no longer officially work alongside the BAU. What began as a one-season arc stretched into four, he said.
Speaking separately with Us Weekly, Gilford acknowledged the door isn’t fully shut, even without anything concrete lined up. “I’m not there filming right now,” he said, according to E! Online. In an exclusive interview with Yahoo, he went further, saying he’d happily return if the show ever asked.
There’s also been talk of something bigger than a guest appearance. Gilford told Us Weekly that he and Criminal Minds showrunner Erica Messer had floated the idea of a Voit spinoff at one point, though he noted the project would be complicated by the show’s split ownership between Disney and Paramount, according to AOL.
Voit’s exit caps a storyline that took the character through several dramatic swings — from captured serial killer, to informant, to the target of a prison assault at the end of Season 17 that left him with amnesia heading into Season 18, according to TVLine. Gilford, previously known for “Friday Night Lights” and Netflix’s “Midnight Mass,” told the outlet he’s “done, definitely for now.”
Gilford’s run on the show also became something of a family affair — his wife was cast in the series during his time on it, a detail he’s discussed in past interviews, according to Sportskeeda. Whether Voit reappears down the line remains an open question; as CarterMatt noted following the finale, few storylines stay fully closed on a show built around behavioral profiling and long-running mysteries.
Season 20 of “Criminal Minds: Evolution” has not yet been given a premiere date.
