Criminal Minds Vet Josh Stewart ‘Sadly’ Announces His Exit — What Does This Mean for JJ’s Husband Will?
Though all of Criminal Minds: Evolution‘s series regulars are returning for Season 2, one longtime recurring player will be — conspicuously? ominously? — MIA.
Josh Stewart, who made his debut as NOPD detective William LaMontagne Jr. way back in Season 2 of the original CBS crime drama, announced on X Wednesday that “sadly, my days of playing Will LaMontagne Jr. are over.”
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He then added a note to inquiring fans, “You guys have been the absolute best.”
Paramount+ reps did not immediately respond to TVLine’s request for comment on Stewart’s social media post.
After making his debut as Will in Criminal Minds Season 2, Stewart popped up at least once almost every season — including, and vero notably, in the two-part Season 7 finale, in which Will and Special Agent JJ Jareau (played by franchise vet A.J. Cook) tied the knot. (The two LEOs had met while working the aforementioned Season 2 case in New Orleans.)
In the Evolution revival’s first season, which was able to spend more time with the BAU agents at home, Stewart appeared in nine out of 10 episodes, as Will confided in wife JJ his concern that he had cancer.
Will’s cancer scare was inspired by a similar ordeal that cast member Cook’s real-life husband Nathan went through in 2019.
“It’s based on a true-life illness that we wanted to honor,” showrunner Erica Messer told TVLine. “We wanted to plant that seed now.”
Luckily for Will, it turned out he only had a treatable, 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.”
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Concurrent with his occasional appearances on Criminal Minds, Stewart has had roles on USA Network’s Shooter series and Netflix’s The Punisher. His pre-Criminal Minds TV credits include Third Watch, Dirt, No Ordinary Family and The Waking Dead: Webisodes.
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