Criminal Minds favorite Josh Stewart will not be returning for the second season of Evolution.
On Wednesday, January 17, Stewart, 46, posted on X about his departure. “No sadly, my days of playing Will LaMontagne Jr. are over,” he shared with a fan asking if he is on the next season of Criminal Minds: Evolution. “You guys have been the absolute best,” Stewart added.
Stewart has played Will LaMontagne Jr. on Criminal Minds since season 2 of the original series when he first appeared as the NOPD detective. Stewart would appear in at least one episode per season. In the season 7 finale, Stewart’s character married Special Agent J.J. Jareau (A.J. Cook), one of the main characters of the show. He appeared in the majority of episodes of Criminal Minds: Evolution’s first season with Will and J.J.’s marriage being a central part of the show.
Stewart’s character also was given some hardships to go through in season 1 of Evolution. He revealed to J.J. that he believed he had cancer — a story line inspired by Cook’s real-life husband. At the time, showrunner Erica Messer talked to TVLine about the plot. “It’s based on a true-life illness that we wanted to honor,” Messer said. “We wanted to plant that seed now.”
While ultimately Will had a treatable enlarged thyroid, Messer said the story line could be revisited later on.
The original Criminal Minds ran on CBS from 2005-2020. Evolution is an expansion of that series, allowing for the original cast like Cook, Adam Rodriguez and Joe Mantegna to continue their original roles. The first season sees the characters going up against an anonymous person who has used the COVID-19 pandemic to create a network of serial killers which goes operational when the world opens back up. It also allowed for more of a look into the personal lives of the characters like Will and J.J.’s marriage. Season 2 of Evolution is expected sometime in 2024.
Stewart has also had roles in TV shows like The Rookie and films like Interstellar and the Dark Knight Rises.
