Here in the summer offseason, Criminal Minds is wasting no time setting up Season 13, especially when it comes to cast members coming and going. Actor Damon Gupton was recently canned after joining the show for Season 12, and now the CBS hit drama has filled that all-around vacancy with someone that fans of the cancelled spinoff Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders will be happy to see. That show's star Daniel Henney has been tapped to join the flagship BAU squad when it returns.
While job changes are nothing new in TV, Daniel Henney's situation is a fairly unique one by all means. Spinoffs already aren't the most numerous of primetime offerings, and it's a pretty rare occasion for an offshoot star to get rescued from temporary unemployment by a TV predecessor. (And this is quite different from a situation like Breaking Bad characters reappearing on Better Call Saul.) But Daniel Henney must have really impressed everyone at CBS with his limited stint as Special Agent Matt Simmons, since that character will now be a major part of Criminal Minds proper for Season 13, according to Deadline. Just in case anyone had questions about him being tapped for a new role, no worries are needed.
Even longtime viewers who never tuned into Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders should at least be vaguely familiar with seeing Agent Simmons around, as he's appeared in two different Criminal Minds episodes in the past two years. The first came during Season 10 in 2015, as part of the backdoor pilot process that introduced some of the Beyond Borders characters ahead of the follow-up's debut. Daniel Henney then returned to the flagship drama last season to assist Team BAU after Reid's oddball "arrested in Mexico" plotline started up. It isn't made clear whether or not Simmons will show up for Season 13's premiere, but his casting as a series regular means it's more than likely to happen.
During its freshman year, Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders was decently received and had the viewership to earn itself a second season, but apparently CBS had higher expectations for the spinoff. (At least it lasted longer than the first companion show, the one-and-done Suspect Behavior.) I'm not sure many out there expected to see any of those internationally weathered agents making their way to Quantico full-time, but if Daniel Henney can do it, who's to say we won't see Gary Sinise's Jack Garrett or Alana de la Garza's Clara Seger popping up at some point?
We still have some months to wait to see what we'll get to see from Daniel Henney on Criminal Minds, as Season 13 won't premiere on CBS until Wednesday nights this fall, when it will get a schedule change by airing an hour later than it has in past years. Until all that gets here, though, head to our summer premiere schedule to see everything that TV has to offer in the near future.
