Thomas Gibson renews contract to continue run on 'Criminal Minds'

With Thomas Gibson, "Criminal Minds" will have its entire main cast back.

After a rocky season filled with cast shakeups and surprise returns, "Criminal Minds" will officially be bringing back the entire gang next season with the news that Thomas Gibson has renewed his contract.

Deadline is reporting Gibson, who plays Supvisory Special Agent Aaron Hotcher, signed a two-year contract extension just two weeks before filming was set to begin on the series' seventh season.

Gibson was the final regular cast member to sign an extension and will join returning actresses A.J. Cook and Paget Brewster, whose characters were written out of the show last season.

Cook's Special Agent JJ Jareau left the show in the first several episodes when she was transferred to a different agency. She returned in the last scene of the season finale.  Emily Prentiss (Brewster) left following a multi-episode arc in which a killer from her past returns, almost kills her and then escapes. At the end of the season, the rest of the team, minus JJ, believes she is dead.

In April, Cook signed a new two-year contract to return. Then last month, after her pilot "My Life as an Experiment" wasn't picked up, ABC exercised its option on Brewster to bring her back as well. Meanwhile, the studio did not pick up an option for Rachel Nichols, whose Ashley Seaver was introduced this year.

The "Criminal Minds" spin-off "Suspect Behavior" was canceled last month after a lackluster first season in the ratings. Hopefully with the return of the main cast and without the ill-conceived spin-off as a distraction, the series can return to form after a lackluster season six.