Evil is a supernatural television series created by Robert King and Michelle King for CBS. The first season premiered on September 26, 2019. In October 2019, Evil was renewed for a second season. In May 2021, Evil was confirmed to be moved to Paramount+. Season 2 premiered on June 20. In July 2021, Evil was renewed for a third season. Evil focuses on Kristen Bouchard, a forensic psychologist who pairs up David Acosta who is studying to a be catholic priest, in order to differentiate between insanity and demonic possession. Ben Shakir, a contractor works alongside with Bouchard and Acosta who is skeptical about demons.
Premise
A skeptical forensic psychologist (Herbers) allies with a Catholic seminarian (Colter) and a technology contractor (Mandvi) to investigate purported supernatural incidents.
Cast and characters
Main
- Katja Herbers as Dr. Kristen Bouchard, a forensic psychologist who made a career as an expert witness, and is offered a new job as assessor by David. A Christian-raised agnostic who does not believe in demons or the supernatural, she finds her skepticism tested many times as her new job leads her to walk a thin line between the unexplained and what science can account for.
- Mike Colter as David Acosta, a Catholic priest and formerly a war journalist who struggled with addictions. He is an assessor, tasked with investigating and confirming events such as miracles and reports of demons, leading him to enlist the help of Kristen and Ben. A believer in the existence of both godly and demonic events, he has divine-like visions, which he achieves by taking hallucinogens, and is more inclined than the other two assessors to accept supernatural explanations. In season 2, he completes his training and becomes a priest.
- Aasif Mandvi as Ben Shakir, an atheist raised in the religion of Islam who is the team's technical expert and equipment handler. A sarcastic, pragmatic man who looks down on religious institutions and belief in the supernatural, he tries to provide scientific explanations for the events the trio investigates.
- Kurt Fuller as Dr. Kurt Boggs, a psychiatrist and Kristen's therapist who gradually finds himself involved in some of Kristen's encounters with the supernatural.
- Marti Matulis has many of the creatures featured in the series, including the following recurring characters:
- George, a demon who appears in Kristen's dreams, voiced by an uncredited Euan Morton
- The "Devil Therapist" (seasons 1–2), a goat-like demon who is Leland Townsend's therapist, voiced by an uncredited Michael Cerveris
- The "Manager Demon" (seasons 3–4), a five-eyed goat-like demon who is Sheryl's work supervisor, voiced by an uncredited Kevin Chapman
- Brooklyn Shuck as Lynn Bouchard, Kristen's eldest daughter
- Skylar Gray as Lila Bouchard, Kristen's second eldest daughter
- Maddy Crocco as Lexis Bouchard, Kristen's third eldest daughter
- Dalya Knapp as Laura Bouchard, Kristen's fourth and youngest daughter
- Christine Lahti as Sheryl Luria, Kristen's mother. She is originally supportive of Kristen, but the two grow apart after she enters a relationship with Leland Townsend, who leads Sheryl to become increasingly involved with the demonic.
- Michael Emerson as Dr. Leland Townsend, a forensic psychologist who is Kristen's professional rival and seems obsessed with her family. Under his meek, polite behavior, he is a psychopath and worshipper who commits horrible acts and encourages others to do the same to spread more evil in the world. He looks down on religion and holds particular contempt for David and Sister Andrea. Although he hates being reminded of his origins, he was originally Jake Perry, an insurance adjuster in Des Moines.
- Ashley Edner as Abbey (season 2; guest season 3), a succubus that taunts Ben during his dreams
- Ciara Renée voices Abbey in a recurring role
- Andrea Martin as Sister Andrea (seasons 3–4; recurring season 2), a smart, no-nonsense nun, who advises David and opposes Townsend. Sr. Andrea is Sister of Mercy and a devout Roman Catholic. Unlike most humans, she is capable of seeing demons when they walk the living world, and fervently faces them and the humans who worship them, notably Townsend, who immediately comes to hate her.
Recurring
- Darren Pettie as Orson LeRoux (seasons 1–2), a convicted serial killer who is evaluated by Kristen
- Brooke Bloom as Emily LeRoux (seasons 1, 3), Orson LeRoux's wife
- Danny Burstein as Lewis Cormier (seasons 1, 4), Kristen's former boss and the D.A. of Queens, New York City
- Boris McGiver as Monsignor Matthew Korecki, a distinguished priest who Kristen, David and Ben receive and report their cases to. Although the character dies in the penultimate episode of season three, Korecki makes a voice appearance in the season four episode "How to Build a Chatbot" as an artificial intelligence emulating Korecki.
- Sohina Sidhu as Karima Shakir, Ben's sister and a tech expert
- Clark Johnson as Father Amara (season 1), an exorcist and David's spiritual advisor
- Noah Robbins as Sebastian Lewin (season 1), a young man targeted by Leland Townsend
- Nora Murphy as Rose390 (season 1), a young girl avatar in a video game whose creator attacks David
- Nicole Shalhoub as Vanessa Dudley (seasons 1–2), one of the co-hosts of the ghost-themed reality show "Gotham Ghosts" and Ben's on-again/off-again girlfriend
- Li Jun Li as Grace Ling (seasons 1–3), a supposed doomsday prophet under investigation by The Catholic Church
- Kristen Connolly as Detective Mira Byrd (seasons 1–2), a homicide detective in the NYPD and Kristen's friend
- Patrick Brammall as Andy Bouchard, Kristen's husband, father of their daughters and a professional climbing guide who is often away from the family
- Peter Scolari as Bishop Thomas Marx (seasons 1–2), a skeptical Catholic Church official who assigns David's cases prior to his ordination. His appearances in Season 2 were some of Scolari's final performances before his death in 2021.
- Renée Elise Goldsberry as Renée Harris (seasons 1–2), a defense attorney working for the Catholic Church
- Taylor Louderman as Malindaz (seasons 1–3), a popular YouTube beauty vlogger who is one of Townsend's clients
- Brian Stokes Mitchell as Father Joe Mulvehill (seasons 2, 4), a spiritually exhausted exorcist suffering from a crisis of faith
- Stephen Dexter as "Fry Guy" (seasons 2–3), a man that Kristen assaults after he was repeatedly rude to her, leading to the creation of a viral video
- Brian d'Arcy James as Victor LeConte (seasons 2–4), an agent of The Entity, the Vatican secret service
- Anthony DeSando as Father Rodrigo Katagas (seasons 2–4), a high-ranking member of The Congregatio pro Doctrina Fidei aka The Holy Office
- Tim Matheson as Edward Tragoren (seasons 2–3), a sinister business consultant and friend of Townsend who romances Sheryl
- Wallace Shawn as Father Frank Ignatius (seasons 3–4), a dying priest who is miraculously brought back to life after the weighing of his soul, resulting in a more spontaneous and exuberant behavior. After the death of Monsignor Korecki, with whom he shared a close and almost intimate bond, he is appointed to replace him as supervisor of Kristen, David and Ben.
- Molly Brown as Leslie Ackhurst (seasons 3–4), the surrogate mother of Timothy, a child born from one of Kristen's previously harvested eggs
- Gia Crovatin as Renee (seasons 3–4), Ben's girlfriend and the leader of the Yeshua People cult
- Dana Gourrier as Yasmine Thomas (seasons 3–4), Kristen's attorney and friend
- Chukwudi Iwuji as Father Dominic Kabiru (season 4), a senior agent of The Entity, the Vatican secret service
- Fedor Steer as various creatures (season 4), including the "Massive Stick Demon", a "Great Evil Coming to New York" alluded to in previous seasons
- John Carroll Lynch as Henry Stick (season 4), a Human disguise taken by the Stick Demon to pose as a clumsy and unassuming lawyer who acts as Leland's legal counsel
Episodes
- Main article: List of CBS' Evil Episodes
Production
CBS ordered a pilot for the potential series in January 2019, created by the writing team Robert and Michelle King. Katja Herbers and Mike Colter were cast in February, with Michael Emerson and Aasif Mandvi cast in March. A series order was officially made in May 2019. A day after that, it was announced that the series would premiere in the fall of 2019 and air on Thursday nights at 10:00 p.m. during the 2019–2020 television season.
The series debuted on September 26, 2019. On July 18, 2019, Christine Lahti was cast as Sheryl Luria, replacing Deirdre O'Connell who was in the original pilot. On July 25, 2019, it was announced that Kurt Fuller, who guest starred in the pilot, had been promoted to a series regular. On October 22, 2019, CBS renewed the series for a second season. The filming of the second season was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, but later began in October 2020 and was rerouted into a more "character-focused season." Filming concluded in June 2021.
On May 18, 2021, it reported that the series would move to Paramount+ for the second season. On May 23, 2021, it was announced that the second season would set to premiere on June 20, 2021. On July 8, 2021, Paramount+ renewed the series for a third season.
On July 5, 2022, Paramount+ renewed the series for a fourth season. Filming for the season started in December 2022, and was forced to stop earlier than expected in May 2023 due to the 2023 Hollywood strikes. The episode that was being filmed was the tenth, and filming resumed on it in December. On February 15, 2024, it was announced that the fourth season will be the final season, that the producers were given four extra episodes to conclude the story and is set to premiere on May 23, 2024. The extra four episodes started shooting at the end of March 2024 and wrapped at the end of May, and were later described by showrunners Robert and Michelle King, and star Katja Herbers as a mini-fifth season.
Home media
CBS Home Entertainment released the complete first season on DVD on June 30, 2020. The complete second season was released on DVD-R on June 7, 2022. Season 3 was released in December 2022 on DVD and Blu-ray.
Gallery
