‘Criminal Minds’ Hints at Another Major Death After [Spoiler] Gets Shot

Is Criminal Minds about to kill off a main character following a surprise shooting?

During the Thursday, June 19, episode of the hit Paramount+ series, Voit’s (Zach Gilford) past came back to haunt him when a new serial killer popped up with his Sicarius spiders signature. This led to Voit facing off with his uncle — in deepfake form — but they ultimately weren’t able to catch the unsub.

The BAU weren’t sure how to track down the criminal but he figured out a way to find them instead. In the last scene of the episode, Tara (Aisha Tyler) and Rebecca (Nicole Pacent) were told they needed to visit the DOJ at his office. On their way to their car, they were shot at and Tara got injured protecting her girlfriend.

It isn’t clear whether Tara’s injury is fatal. The shocking cliffhanger comes after JJ’s (A.J. Cook) husband, Will (Josh Stewart), died earlier this season. Stewart, 48, previously had a recurring role as Will since 2007.

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Stewart raised eyebrows when he revealed in January 2024 that he would not be reprising his role in future seasons of the show.

“[S]adly, my days of playing Will LaMontagne Jr. are over,” Stewart wrote via X in response to a question about his future on the show. “You guys have been the absolute best.”

Cook, 46, was asked about reuniting with her onscreen husband Stewart in a May episode. The actress confirmed Stewart wasn’t on set for seasons 2 or 3 of Criminal Minds: Evolution.

“People don’t know this, I guess,” Cook revealed to TV Line. “But he wasn’t coming back to the show. Our writers had to get very creative.”

Cook pointed to Will’s past health scare, adding, “Remember the cancer storyline that we wrote in [during Evolution‘s first season]? We so badly were like, ‘We don’t want [Josh] to think he’s going to die,’ we got so freaked out by it, that we pulled this scene [of Will collapsing]. That’s how much we did not want Josh to leave us.”

The Criminal Minds creative team revisited the deleted scene when it came time to kill Will off.

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“Our brilliant showrunner [Erica Messer] was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we have this scene that we never used,’” Cook recalled. “Erica Messer put the pieces of a really complicated puzzle together, and it worked. It’s weird how it happened that way — but that just goes to show how much we just did not want any more pain to come to this family.”

After Will’s shocking onscreen death, Adam Rodriguez, who plays Luke, weighed in on where the show goes from here, exclusively telling Us Weekly, “It’s not somebody you want to see die. It gave AJ, the actress, a chance to really demonstrate the level of talent that she has. Because I think she’s a great actress and having this to play really gave her an opportunity to sink her teeth into something substantial.”

Rodriguez, 50, acknowledged that not every fan would be pleased by the decision.

“Her character — and fans of the show — are tough. This was an opportunity to let JJ’s guard down. Obviously she has to be strong for her family but you really get to see that vulnerable side of her,” he continued. “She’s had an opportunity to get some great stuff to do and I’m glad people are getting to see that.”

New episodes of Criminal Minds: Evolution air Thursdays on Paramount+.