‘Criminal Minds’ season 12 spoilers: First news on Damon Gupton’s debut

Earlier this week on Wednesday night’s new episode of ” Criminal Minds,” the show finally tackled the massive elephant in the room and revealed precisely how they were planning on writing out Thomas Gibson’s character of Hotch: He’s off somewhere in Witness Protection. In theory, it’s now possible that he does figure out a way to make it back to the team, but the writers made it pretty definite that this is unlikely to happen. We’re moving forward and turning the page, and that includes with a new cast member in tow.

Below, you can see the first-look photo of new cast member Damon Gupton, who will be appearing for the first time on the upcoming December 7 episode entitled “Scarecrow.” His role is Stephen Walker, a man distinguished in his field after many years working for the Behavioral Analysis Program within the FBI.

As for the circumstances surrounding his arrival on the show, that is a little unclear, but maybe the BAU just decided to recruit him in given the fact that they’ve had a little bit of space that they could use to fill up the cast. Gibson commanded a big salary, and with that financially there is room to bring on a multitude of new characters and make the show more of an ensemble. This also means potentially lightening the load on the cast, which is surely something that will probably be nice given how many episodes this show films a year and some of the long hours.

Aside from Gupton’s arrival, this episode will feature the BAU traveling to Yakima, Washington following the shocking reveal of remains found in a creek bed. There could be as many as twenty casualties when the dust settles here, which is a crazy and truly-shocking thing to consider.

For more news on “Criminal Minds,” including our take on this past episode and the Gibson reveal, be sure to head over to the link here. (Photo: CBS.)