Per Deadline, Garcia is slated to portray Doctor Julia Ochoa, a renowned neuropsychiatrist whose work helping a high-profile patient recover from a traumatic brain injury brings her into contact with the main cast of Criminal Minds: Evolution. This will put her at odds with Adam Rodriguez’ Agent Luke Alvez, whose own tactics are far more aggressive than those of Doctor Ochoa. Garcia became a fast fan-favorite during her five-season run as forensic scientist Ella Lopez on Lucifer.
Criminal Minds: Evolution began in 2022 and serves as the sixteenth season of the long-running crime procedural, Criminal Minds, following the remaining members of the original series’ team from the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit. The series features returning stars Joe Mantegna, A. J. Cook, Kirsten Vangsness, Paget Brewster, Aisha Tyler, and Adam Rodriguez. While Criminal Minds: Evolution does see the members of the BAU take on a variety of shocking cases, the series also heavily focuses on the ongoing efforts of the serial-killer collective created by the murderous Elias Voit, portrayed by Zach Gilford.
Criminal Minds: Evolution Moves On
Ahead of the second season finale of Criminal Minds: Evolution, showrunner and longtime producer Erica Messer disc ussed the impact of A. J. Cook and Paget Brewster’s temporary exits from the series, as well as how the series itself addressed those turbulent times on-screen. “I was here when all of that happened with them. It left a scar on all of us who experienced it,” Messer said. “When you have a character really contemplating whether [she’s] going to quit so they don’t fire [her], how can we not talk about the elephant in the room, which is that these two [actors] were fired all those years ago? Let them fire you but don’t quit. We survive. We’re still here.”
Brewster, who has portrayed SSA Emily Prentiss off-and-on since Criminal Minds’ second season, recently opened up about her time away from the series and the issues surrounding both her exit and return, explaining that she ultimately came back because “the fans love her so much.”
Brewster explained, “When I was off the show, that was complicated and lousy , but I was off the show for four years, and I did other stuff. They kept asking me to come back, and I finally agreed to come back, because for those four years I was doing Community, Another Period, Grandfathered – but I’d go to the supermarket or be in the airport and fans would come up to me and say, ‘Why aren’t you on Criminal Minds anymore?… And so I called them up… The show was doing great. And then they ended up asking me to come back and join full time, and I was happy to. It’s really just been lucky for me.”
Criminal Minds: Evolution is currently available for streaming on Paramount+.
