Matthew Gray Gubler is beloved by fans of Criminal Minds for his role as Dr. Spencer Reid, which he played in the original CBS series for 15 years, so they were saddened to learn that he would not be reprising the role when the series was picked up by Paramount+ due to “scheduling” problems.
But now, Gubler is slated to return to CBS as the lead in the procedural dramedy, Einstein (working title), it is reported by Deadline, playing another character who is a genius. Reid, of course, had earned Ph.D.s in Mathematics, Chemistry and Engineering before joining the FBI as a profiler.
A.J. Cook, Matthew Gray Gubler
Photo: Screen Grab/CBS
The pilot for the new series, based on a German show of the same name, is set at Princeton where Lew Einstein (Gubler)—the great grandson of Albert Einstein, is a popular professor … when he shows up for class.
Per the official logline, Lew is a tenured professor, who is brilliant but directionless, and spends his days as a comfortably tenured professor until his bad boy antics land him in trouble with the law and he is pressed into service helping a local police detective solve her most puzzling cases.”
According to TVLine, this is CBS’ second attempt at bringing Einstein to the small screen. In October 2020, a gender-flipped version had been pitched which would have starred Albert Einstein’s great granddaughter as a liaison to the Boston P.D. And NBC also tried to bring the series to the U.S. in 2018. Neither attempt was successful.
Since leaving Criminal Minds, Gubler starred in the series Dollface and has authored two books Rumple Buttercup and The Little Kid With the Big Green Hand,” both made the New York Times bestsellers list.
As for his possible return to the new season of Criminal Minds: Evolution, showrunner Erica Messer told Parade, “There’s always room for him. We went from shooting the show 10 months a year to four months out of the year so it’s trickier than you think to be able to get into somebody’s window when we don’t have basically the whole year to do it. Last season was tricky, too, because the writers’ strike and actors strike had happened, so we didn’t know when we were going to shoot so there was no way to really plan on it. Then this year, similarly, we didn’t exactly know when we were going to be able to shoot. I will always remain hopeful, and I think he will always remain hopeful that the stars will align, and we’ll get to do this again. But like I said, I can’t fully speak to the season because we haven’t broken the whole season, but I do know that he’s busy doing other projects and that’s amazing. We want that for him but he’s always a part of our family.”
