The sixteenth season of the American police procedural crime drama television series Criminal Minds, now subtitled Evolution, follows members of the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) as they are faced with a network of serial killers built during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Evolution serves as a revival of the series after its original run on CBS ended two years earlier.

[3] In February 2021, a revival of Criminal Minds was announced to be in early development at Paramount+ with 10 episodes planned.

[11] Most of the main cast of the last season of the previous series returned, with the exception of Matthew Gray Gubler and Daniel Henney.

[13] Later that month, it was confirmed that A. J. Cook, Aisha Tyler and Adam Rodriguez would also be directing episodes this season.