‘Criminal Minds’ season 10: Anna Gunn of ‘Breaking Bad’ to star in spin-off

We already knew that “Criminal Minds” had managed to score a huge star in Gary Sinise for their upcoming spin-off show, but they have now managed to officially up the ante yet again with another big name: Anna Gunn.

Here is what we can tell you right now. Gunn will be the female lead for the project, which is going to revolve around a special division of the FBI with a focus on helping American citizens abroad. This will be planted within an episode of the flagship show later this season, and the script will be penned by current showrunner Erica Messer. If the episode is well-received and CBS has a place for it, we could see the spin-off on the network schedule during the 2015-16 season. We already know that this is something that the network is fond of, given that “NCIS” and “CSI” both already have spin-off shows on the schedule for this season.

As for Gunn’s casting, it feels like this is a tremendous coup that the network somehow managed to pull this off. She was excellent on “Breaking Bad,” and there is a part of us that almost feels surprised that she signed on to do something that could have her locked in to this for such a long time. She was a part of “Gracepoint,” but the expectation there was not for it to be anything more than a limited series unless the ratings came back enormous.

The one thing that we do know is that despite being amazing, Gunn is no sure thing as a ratings draw. “Gracepoint” had pretty low ratings from the start, and they never really improved.

For now, let us know what you think about this casting for the spin-off show with a comment. Also, you can head over here to get some further TV updates on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: CBS.)