Criminal Minds: Evolution Gets Hannibal Lecter-Esque in New Season Trailer

Elias Voit is not making things any easier for our favorite profilers just because he’s behind bars.

The first trailer for Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2, aka Criminal Minds Season 17, has arrived, and it’s juicy!

Voit isn’t letting his encumbered status stop him from annoying the hell out of the team; he’s also getting in on the crime-solving action.

The trailer definitely gives us Hannibal Lecter vibes.

Everyone who watched Silence of the Lambs knows that Lecter was a crucial, if shocking, ally to Clarice Starling as she solved one of the bureau’s most difficult cases.

(If you haven’t read the Thomas Harris book or seen the movie, please do so.)

The new Criminal Minds: Evolution trailer reveals a seasoned unsub with a specific calling card is getting away with murder.

It’s a killer so crafty that it seems the only way they can get inside his mind is to get inside Elias Voit’s first.

In the first season of this revival, Elias was an evil mastermind masquerading as an everyman.

He seemingly had it all — a good job (which he lost) and a beautiful family (which he also lost)

Nothing was good enough for him, though, and the lengths he went to murder were daring, dangerous, and highly skilled.

It may have taken an entire season to hunt him down, but his arrogance was his downfall.

He had gotten away with murder for so long that he thought nobody would be good enough to catch him.

He was wrong.

A man who is used to using his mind a million different ways is likely to be pretty damn bored behind bars.

Solving a murder might actually appeal to him for several reasons, his dull environment being one of them.

His arrogance is another.

How good it must feel for him to be in charge again as the team looks to him for clues to solving more deaths—deaths he’d probably like to carry out himself.

We’re probably all suckers for that kind of mind-frak, as seeing people struggle against their morals and values to let in a twisted criminal like Voit cannot be easy.

The trailer is tantalizing beyond what it suggests, beginning with Voit teasing a secret he holds to Luke Alvez.

Luke ain’t got no time for that kind of behavior, and it gives me great pleasure to see him slam Voit’s face against the prison bars.

The trailer also introduces the new director, played by Clark Gregg, and reveals that Tyler returns from the first season.

That’s somewhat unexpected as he and Garcia got very close, and they said goodbye during the first season finale.

He was pretty badass, though, and with his military background, would make a good fit for future crime-solving.

It seems I wasn’t alone in imagining a future with him in it.

As always, we will be reviewing every minute of this exciting show.

What do you think of the trailer?

Will you be watching along with us?

And let us know. If you’re searching for this show, are you looking for Criminal Minds or Criminal Minds: Evolution? It’s confusing, right??

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Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She’s a member of the Critic’s Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on X and email her here at TV Fanatic.