‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’: RJ Hatanaka Teases The Fan’s Next Moves After Major Reveal

Criminal Minds: Evolution has finally revealed The Fan, and Season 19’s Big Bad UnSub, who starts out idolizing serial killer Elias Voit (Zach Gilford) but now seemingly has the upper hand with him, is played by Justin Kirk.

Kirk’s character visited Voit in prison under the guise of being the cousin of one of his victims. But Voit could tell who he was from their first interaction, only for their last of the July 2 episode to end with The Fan showing the imprisoned serial killer a photo that made him very angry.

Below, RJ Hatanaka, who stars as Tyler, discusses The Fan reveal, Tyler’s continued progress with the BAU, and what’s ahead.

I love Justin Kirk playing The Fan. Great casting.

RJ Hatanaka: Great casting, yeah. I know that, for these juicy roles like The Fan, there’s a lot of thought that goes into it of course. And the fact that Justin Kirk was available wanting to do it and did such a great job with it, he’s a really nice guy, too. So I think we’re all having a lot of fun with how weird he got with it and there’s more to come. There’s much more to come.

So far he’s only shown himself to Voit. So what can you tease about how the BAU, and especially Tyler, because we know how Tyler feels about Voit, is going to react when they find out what he’s up to, the fact that he hasn’t included them in on this?

Yeah. I think that the fact that Voit is having a kind of sudden fun with this information until the reveal at the end of this latest episode — I think now he’s presented with, “Do I tell the BAU right away? How does this all go?” And I think, regardless of all that, the BAU is very much on the case and very good at their job. So, maybe he could delay it a little bit with that, but the BAU is certainly going to find out about The Fan and this problem that he’s presenting. And The Fan prides himself on being one step ahead, and he really has a lot of fun with that. So it presents a great challenge for the BAU as we go forward because there are constant surprises, and I think the fans are really going to respond to it.

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And I feel like Tyler’s just like, “See, I’m always right about Voit. You cannot trust this guy,” right?

I think if it were up to Tyler, yeah, Voit may have come to a different end, but Tyler’s growing. He’s more empathetic now than he was.

At the end of the episode, The Fan shows Voit a photo, we don’t see what it’s of, but it kind of seems like it may involve Voit’s daughters, based on what The Fan was saying. So, what can you tease about what’s next with The Fan and like that photo?

I would say that, as we saw at the end of the episode, Voit is horrified by what he saw, and we’ll see very shortly that he has real reason to be. It presents real problems for him, presents problems for everybody involved, and is very juicy for The Fan, which is troublesome.

When are we going to see Tyler coming face to face with The Fan?

He will.

How does he handle that? Because I’ve liked seeing how much Tyler has grown as a profiler since he first joined the team and we really see that this season.

Yeah, this season is very, very interesting. So Tyler, as we all know, started out as a liability, as a wild man, and he’s had this unique opportunity to shape himself in this environment with these unbelievable people. So, he’s found a family for the first time in a very, very, very long time. And so there’s a lot of complexity with family, of course. So he’s learning interpersonally, he’s watching very, very closely, he’s doubting himself and needing to, in these high-pressure cooker environments, make that into productive doubt and he’s being mentored left and right. So it’s a very juicy storyline for me and for the fans to see Tyler becoming this different thing day by day, episode by episode. And the writers are sprinkling in little moments here and there that when you really string them together, it’s such a dynamic arc and that continues through the end of Season 19. And now that we’re halfway through filming Season 20, it’s an honor to play it.

So, how does The Fan challenge like that fatal though? Because this is a whole different kind of UnSub.

I think that The Fan, having such skill at being one step ahead, Tyler’s learning a lot on the fly, and when you’re learning a lot on the fly, it’s very difficult to train yourself to also be one step ahead. So, those two things bump, but Tyler’s part of this amazing team and together with the many heads, it really makes for a dynamic end of the season.

How does Tyler feel about what he learns about Rossi (Joe Mantegna) and Donnie Mallick (Arye Gross) in this most recent episode?

Rossi is a very dynamic figure. Tyler respects the hell out of him. From day one, he’s had a very intense relationship with Tyler, and I think that Tyler not having any mentor figures in his life, Paget [Brewster]’s character and Joe’s character have really taken the time to teach him different things and that information about Donnie Mallick, I mean, that’s new information, but also, he understands how complex people can be. He’s been one step away from ending himself, as he told Garcia [Kirsten Vangsness] in Season 16. And so he understands, that was only a few years ago and now I’m here. He understands how much people can grow, how much they can learn and how complex situations can be. I think he understands that as well as anybody. So, that understanding, he’ll bring that into his relationship with Rossi, and I think it’ll be better for it.

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The last two episodes really focused on Rossi’s reaction to what Garcia did, testifying behind closed doors regarding Voit. Given Tyler’s history with Garcia and Voit, how does he feel about what she did?

I think the writers did something really interesting there, which I think the first time you see us in this episode that aired today, we’re on the jet together, and Tyler’s sitting next to Garcia and the first thing he says is, “Are you guys OK?” So, he’s come a long way in terms of empathy, in terms of understanding the complexity of these scenarios, and in terms of his love for these people. So, in that moment, the writers gave me a real gift in showing that he’s very much concerned with how pissed Rossy is about the situation and how disappointed they both are with each other, and helping them navigate this really complex emotional scenario. I think being able to do that as Tyler is, it really shows his growth.

What can you tease about how Season 19 leaves Tyler to go into Season 20?

He’s so capable. He’s proved himself as being so capable in these previous seasons. Season 19 is all about him becoming more seasoned, more experienced, failing and learning from it. And by the end of Season 19, he’s really integrated into the team in a different way and it’s been really, really fun to see where he is Season 16, 17 with all the Gold Star stuff, Season 18. All of these seasons end with something having happened very dynamically to Tyler. And in the end of Season 19, I think people will be very, very thrilled about where he’s at, and it’ll make them even more excited to jump into Season 20, which I’m very, very excited about.

Right now, the BAU has as a resource kind of, Lance played by Connor Storrie, because he was with The Fan, he survived The Fan, he may have information. We know he’s coming back for Episode 9 and there’s the photo of him with a gun. So it seems like things are really changing when it comes to this guy after what he’s been through. What can you tease about what’s next there?

Such a unique scenario. Connor Storrie was on our show right before Heated Rivalry blew up and he was great. He was a great guy and did a great job on the show and people really embraced him. So, we’re all very happy for him and very excited to see his huge impact here.

It’s a great character that the writers wrote for him, and he will have some very surprising things to do. He will make some grand mistakes. He will get himself into even more trouble than Lance already has in these next few episodes, and I think people will be very interested to see what happens to him.

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What are you hoping to explore with Tyler going forward into Season 20, beyond? Because this show keeps doing so well.

Yeah, there are a lot of different ways that Tyler can go. I love that the writers are giving me more and more personal storylines to explore, and through the end of Season 19, into Season 20, we really get into Tyler as a person and really dive into the complexity of that. And now that he’s, like I said, capable, learning to become seasoned, as he becomes more and more seasoned, there are other problems that present themselves, and those are real issues that Tyler’s going to have to navigate with this family of the BAU.

Criminal Minds: Evolution, Thursdays, Paramount+