‘Criminal Minds’ Veteran Josh Stewart Says He Won’t Be Returning For The Upcoming Season Of ‘Evolution’

Criminal Minds: Evolution fans apparently will be saying goodbye to longtime cast member Josh Stewart. The actor today posted on X (fka Twitter) that “sadly, my days of playing Will LaMontagne Jr. are over,” adding “You guys have been the absolute best.”

Stewart first appeared as a recurring on the original CBS drama Criminal Minds in Season 2 as NOPD detective William LaMontagne Jr. He went on to appear on at least one episode each season. In the two-part season 7 finale, Will wed Special Agent J.J. Moreau, played by A.J. Cook. He appeared in nine out of ten episodes in Evolution’s first season, revealing to J.J. at one point that he was concerned he had cancer.

“It’s based on a true-life illness that we wanted to honor,” showrunner Erica Messer told Deadline’s sister pub TVLine in a previous interview. “We wanted to plant that seed now.” She went on to say, fortunately Will just had an inflamed thyroid, so “next [season], hopefully, he’s going to be OK,” Messer said. “But” — and that but looms very large now — “he’s not necessarily out of the woods forever.”

Evolution‘s second season is set to premiere this year.

We’ve reached out to the show’s reps for comment on Stewart’s social media post.

Criminal Minds: Evolution is an expansion of the original CBS series that ran from 2005-2020. In the first season, the FBI’s elite team of criminal profilers comes up against an UnSub who has used the pandemic to build a network of other serial killers. As the world opens back up and the network goes operational, the team must hunt them down, one murder at a time.

Original cast members continuing their roles include Joe Mantegna, A.J. Cook, Kirsten Vangsness, Aisha Tyler, Adam Rodriguez and Paget Brewster. Zach Gilford joined the first season as a recurring guest star in a season-long arc.

Criminal Minds: Evolution is produced by ABC Signature and CBS Studios. Messer serves as showrunner and executive producer, with Breen Frazier, Chris Barbour, Glenn Kershaw and Mark Gordon also executive producing.