Matthew Gray Gubler is a talented actor with a wide range, but there’s one character who’s going to follow him for the rest of his life. Gubler played young genius Dr. Spencer Reid in CBS’s “Criminal Minds,” sticking around for all 15 seasons of the original series. Spencer is a major part of all the best “Criminal Minds” episodes, and he’s been a fan favorite since the show’s premiere.
When “Criminal Minds: Evolution” brought the show back in 2022, fans were ecstatic about the possibility of seeing Spencer Reid again. Sadly, Gubler didn’t come back for the revival series, but there’s a pretty straightforward reason why. Gubler has gone through a stunning transformation over the course of his career, and when the original “Criminal Minds” ended, his acting career became busier than ever. Gubler’s schedule simply didn’t allow him to be a part of “Evolution” until the reboot’s third season, when the timetables finally aligned.
In 2025 Gubler and some of his “Criminal Minds” costars began hinting about Spencer’s return to the show. The character really did make an appearance, but rather than officially joining the cast, Spencer remained a one-off cameo. That reappearance definitely didn’t satisfy “Criminal Minds” fans who’d been waiting for years to see Spencer again, and many of them are still hoping that we haven’t seen the last of Spencer just yet.
Spencer’s return didn’t live up to the hype
Spencer Reid finally made his long-awaited return to “Criminal Minds” in the episode “Time to Say Goodbye.” Fans had been waiting years to see more of Spencer, but in the end they didn’t get very much time with him at all. In the episode, Spencer shows up at the funeral of J.J.’s husband Will (Josh Stewart) to offer his condolences, but he barely has one line in the entire episode.
There are plenty of questionable things in “Criminal Minds” we all ignore, but fans weren’t willing to overlook Spencer’s lack of screentime. After the episode, fans went online to express their disappointment in Spencer’s reappearance. Many said they had hoped Spencer would be a bigger part of the story in this season of “Criminal Minds,” or that at least he’d get to have more dialogue with his old coworkers.
According to some of the show’s stars, that lack of dialogue was a very purposeful choice. A.J. Cook, who plays J.J. in the show, told TV Insider that when it came time to write Spencer’s part, “They didn’t need a monologue. They didn’t need a bunch of dialogue. It’s all in looks.” It’s definitely true that Matthew Gray Gubler manages to express his character’s emotions in the scene with almost no words at all. Unfortunately, that wasn’t really enough for the fans.