‘Criminal Minds’ season 12 photo: First look at Paget Brewster’s return!

While we know that the primary order of business with “Criminal Minds” right now will be handling the departure of Thomas Gibson from the show, there is also something on the other side also worth looking forward to.

On the upcoming October 12 installment entitled “Taboo,” you are going to have a chance to see for the first time Paget Brewster back on the show in the role of Emily Prentiss! She’s been busy with some other projects over the past few years, but the stars aligned and she’s now at a point where she can come back and be a new anchor for the team. In a perfect world, she’d lead the BAU in the wake of Hotch’s departure, but it may be a little early right now to speak to whether or not that is happening. You can at least see her above with many of the regulars in Joe Mantegna, Matthew Gray Gubler, AJ Cook, and Adam Rodriguez.

Brewster’s addition is one of two arrivals the rest of this season. As we reported late this past week, Damon Gupton has also been brought in as a new series regular, and will make his debut a little bit later this season. It’s smart in many ways that the show is scaling these out, given that it allows us to have a little bit of time to see the chemistry build organically as opposed to having it happen all at once. If that was the case, we’d probably see things turn out to be a little too chaotic.

If you want to get some other news when it comes to “Criminal Minds,” be sure to head over here to preview Wednesday’s episode further!

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