"Criminal Minds" Season 12 returned in September after a period of mini hiatus rendering excitement and exhilaration to the viewers.

Now that it has hit the screen again, "Criminal Minds" pushed fans to high expectations in terms of the list of characters especially on the replacement of Thomas Gibson.

Gibson was involved in a physical altercation with the show's writer-producer Virgil Williams, prompting the producers to fire him permanently.

The American crime based drama will now witness a new face.

Damon Gupta was added to fill the void of Gibson. It is maintained that Episode 2 will be Gibson's concluding appearance as Aaron Hotchner. Afterwards, he will be replaced by the character of Special Agent Stephen Walker played by Gupta. 

Inquisitr maintained that Gibson was only able to shoot two of the initial episodes of "Criminal Minds" Season 12 before the quarrel erupted.

Previously, fans wondered why the producers did not promote members of the team to replace Gibson. It was speculated, according to News Every day, that special agent Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster) could replace Hotchner.

But the rumor was not addressed by the producers..

It still remains a mystery whether Damon Gupta as Stephen Walkers will lead BAU. He tends to be an expert in tackling law and order situations and will make his debut appearance on the eight episode of Season 12.

Yahoo News maintained that Damon Gupta is pretty well acquainted with his new task, especially handling the law enforcement tragedies. He was previously associated with Law and Order, Bates Motel, Prime Suspect, Empire and Criminal Intent as a detective.

Criminal Minds Season 12 Episode 2, titled as 'Sick Day', will be aired Wednesday at 9pm.