'Criminal Minds' season 11 spoilers: Jennifer Love Hewitt leaving, A.J. Cook on maternity leave
After joining the BAU team for just one season, Jennifer Love Hewitt's Kate Callahan is ready to turn over her badge.
In an exclusive interview with the Entertainment Weekly, series showrunner Erica Messer confirmed that Hewitt will not return on "Criminal Minds" season 11 to concentrate on raising her new baby. Hewitt is currently pregnant with her second child with husband Brian Hallisay, which coincides with her role in the CBS police procedural drama. Messer shared that they were able to work around Hewitt's true-to-life story when they wrote off her role in the finale episode of season 10.
In real life, the singer-actress will be having two kids once her new baby is born. This is almost the same as her role in the series, since she already has her niece Meg (Hailey Sole) who she had been raising since she was an infant, and another one on the way.
"Jennifer wanted to be able to give this second baby everything she gave her first, and that's taking time off to be a full-time mom," Messer said during the interview. "Because she's due in July, when we would start shooting season 11, timing-wise there was no way for her to do both, to be able to give that baby everything she wanted to give that baby and still be on our show."
But the series showrunner said that they are not closing their doors in case Hewitt would return in the future. According to Messer, they managed to creatively leave it open during the season 10 finale when Hotch (Thomas Gibson) told Kate that she will always have a place in BAU.
Meanwhile, Messer also talked to Zap2it to discuss the effect of another pregnancy of one of the main cast members of the series – that of A.J. Cook. Messer said that unlike Hewitt, Cook's character J.J. Jareau will return in season 11 of "Criminal Minds" but she will be out for the first five episodes, at least. The showrunner also stated that she is hoping that a fun guest star will fill in JJ's spot while she goes on maternity leave.
"Criminal Minds" season 11 is scheduled to begin filming in July this year.
