Season 11 of Criminal Minds ended last night, and executive producer Erica Messer recently spoke with TV Guide about the finale and season 12 plans for the CBS series.
The long-running procedural has not been officially renewed yet for another season.
In the interview, Messer said the new season will feature more serialized storytelling:
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.”
She added that Mr. Scratch is a high priority for season 12:
We do know that we want Mr. Scratch to be part of Season 12 in some capacity, or at least the idea of Mr. Scratch being out there. Everything else will be the fun of getting the writers together and to say, “If we could bring back anyone in the last 11 years, who would you want it to be?”
When asked about the show’s renewal status, Messer said the news will probably be announced around the time of CBS’ upfronts:
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.”
What do you think? Are you a Criminal Minds fan? Do you think it will be renewed?
You are currently viewing the mobile version of our site. View the full site to get free email alerts, vote on your favorite shows, comment, and more.