‘Criminal Minds’ season 11 spoilers: Will AJ Cook be back?

If you’ve been following many of the “Criminal Minds” stories that are out there at the moment across the internet, then you may know already that Jennifer Love Hewitt is getting set to leave the show after being a part of it for only one season.

So what about AJ Cook? The actress behind JJ, like Hewitt, is expecting a child, and that does pose some scheduling difficulties given that production on season 11 starts in the summer. However, it appears that there is no plan to remove her from the series entirely; instead, the show will just plan to find a way to write around her maternity leave while she is gone.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Erica Messer says that the show revealing JJ’s pregnancy in the finale “helps us answer why she’s likely not in the first episode or so … We laid the groundwork for it, and then we can remind everybody in the premiere that she’s on maternity leave.”

JJ’s return is certainly great news; she is one of the show’s best characters, and the idea of having to replace two of the three main female characters on the show over the course of the summer would have been challenging. For now, there is no word on if the series will bring someone else in for Hewitt, or try to just give the characters they already have some more screen time. We imagine that it may be beneficial to hire one more actor, if for no other reason than to give all of the cast collectively a little more time off. More cast members typically means fewer hours for each individual person.

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