The word evolution was added to the title of Criminal Minds: Evolution to indicate that while the reimagining of the CBS series captures the essence of the original show, the Paramount+ version features a time when the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) has gone through some not-so-welcome changes.

One of those is how strapped for resources the BAU is post-COVID shutdowns with a new deputy director putting his support into domestic terrorism, but another is that the focus is on tracking down one major serial killer over the season rather than just solving a case of the week, which they also do.

What makes Elias Voit (Zach Gilford) different from previous Criminal Minds’ Big Bads is that Elias is the mastermind behind a web of serial killers all across the country, which he developed during the lockdown in the hope that by watching their kills, it will alleviate the need for him to take his own victims and keep him out of the hands of law enforcement.

“The cool thing is now what we’re doing that you’ve never done before is going home with the unsub,” Gilford told Parade in this one-on-one interview. “I think it makes him a much more interesting character because he’s not just a bad guy that we want the BAU to catch, we get more. We see who he is in the world. All these people, they have to function, they have to be amongst society. They can’t all just hide in a basement murdering people all the time.

“You get to see who Voit is in the real world,” Gilford continued. “And it’s like, ‘Oh, my God! This is so fun.’ It’s not just crime stuff, it’s actually like shooting a drama. And then we go into his origin story, and we really flesh him out. So, I think for the audience it’s going to be a little confusing in a sense of you’re going to have feelings for this guy.

You might be sympathetic to him at times. And then we’ll get to scenes where I’m doing nefarious things where you’re like, ‘Oh, my God, this is that guy? I was just rooting for him.’”