‘Criminal Minds’ Casts a Star Trek Veteran, 57, Ahead of Season 19

Fans of CBS’s police procedural crime drama Criminal Minds had a jolly good ride in the just-ended Season 18, and anticipation is already ramping up ahead of a new season. While fans imagine all the possible directions the plot might take, the show has some new faces lined up for the upcoming season. According to TVLine, the Behavioral Analysis Unit will be bolstered with the addition of Jeri Ryan to the cast for Season 19. Ryan becomes the first official new cast member for a mystery role that showrunners are keeping tightly under wraps.

Best known for her turn as Seven of Nine in Star Trek: Voyager and Picard, for which she won two Saturn Awards in 2001 and 2024, Ryan is coming onboard with a solid resume. The BAU’s core cast remains intact for Season 19. Joe Mantegna, Paget Brewster, Kirsten Vangsness, Adam Rodriguez, Aisha Tyler, and A.J. Cook will all reprise their roles, once again stepping into the minds of America’s darkest criminal minds. Zach Gilford also returns as Elias Voit, the chilling killer who evolved from Season 16’s big bad into a morally fractured enigma by Season 18.

Originally premiering on CBS in 2005, the series centers around the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), a specialized team of FBI profilers who analyze some of the country’s most dangerous criminal minds, primarily serial killers, to anticipate their next moves and bring them to justice. Each episode typically follows the BAU team as they travel across the U.S., examining crime scenes, building psychological profiles, and working against the clock to stop the next attack. The original series ran for 15 seasons, ending in 2020, before being revived as Criminal Minds: Evolution in 2022 on Paramount+

How Did Season 18 End? What Can We Expect?

Season 18 introduced “The Disciple,” a new character who is later discovered to be a protégé of the cult leader Cyrus. The Disciple (Tessa Merrick) is a survivor of Cyrus’ 20-year reign of terror. Rather than retreat into anonymity, she dives headfirst into Voit’s criminal network, using her trauma to try and reawaken the dormant Sicarius killer within him. She is actively chasing Voit in a bid to create a trauma-bonded family of killers, a narrative shift that places Voit not only as prey but also as a potential weapon.

Tessa is arrested, and Voit is taken into custody, leaving the future of the Sicarius network uncertain. The season ends on an unnerving note as Voit imagines himself strangling a fellow inmate, a haunting visualization of a fractured psyche. His multiple personas, including the once-dominant Sicarius, seem to be in a war of attrition, and the audience is left wondering which version of Voit will emerge in Season 19.