‘Criminal Minds’ season 12: Writer-producer shares his side of Thomas Gibson incident
While we’ve heard over the course of the past several weeks many different accounts of what happened leading up to the firing of Thomas Gibson from “Criminal Minds,” one person stayed fairly quiet in the public eye: Virgil Williams. The writer and co-executive producer on the show was the other party in the argument many months ago where Gibson reportedly kicked him in the shin, leading to a suspension and eventual termination from the hit CBS series.
Speaking (per People Magazine) while making a visit to Ghetto Film School Los Angeles, Williams corroborated reports that almost everything began following a dispute over a script:
“He came to me with a line change that he wanted. Because of this particular episode, the change that he wanted hurt the story … I offered him a fix. He didn’t accept the fix. He said, ‘Fix it so I’m happy’ and then walked off.”
After another confrontation (one that happened while waiting for the showrunner to help resolve the situation), the alleged incident took place. Williams says that he wishes Gibson well, and admitted that from a writing standpoint, the transition is tough given that Hotch was a huge part of the show (and it’s still unclear how the writers are going to write him out of the series):
“It hasn’t been smooth … It was very abrupt. But we tried to do it seamlessly and move on. We’re going to keep moving forward and we’re going to keep telling great stories.”
We do certainly still think that losing Gibson is a huge blow to “Criminal Minds” given his star power and fan base, and also that you should not treat Hotch a certain way just because of Gibson’s dismissal. Longtime fans deserve resolution to that story. Yet, at the same time we weren’t there for the incident that unfolded, so it’s hard to say for certain the show acted unjustly. They may not have had a choice beyond drastic action.
For some other news right away when it comes to “Criminal Minds” leading up to the next episode, be sure to visit the link here right now. (Photo: ABC.)