Chicago Med is finally on the verge of a proper crossover with the other two One Chicago shows in the 2025 TV schedule, for the medical drama's very first three-parter since the "Infection" event of 2019. It's the first for new showrunner Allen MacDonald, and he spoke with CinemaBlend about a big change for both Med and Fire for the crossover as well as the details he wasn't supposed to drop about the storyline... until they were revealed in the promo.
The three-parter is called "In the Trenches," with the first responders of One Chicago's leg of the nine-show Dick Wolf TV universe racing into danger after a catastrophic gas explosion, subway tunnel collapse, and a possible criminal element to the crisis. So, let's start with the big change that's happening, and I'm not just referring to Dr. Archer heading out into the field with the Firehouse 51 team!
Chicago Med's Big Crossover Change
Long before NBC released any footage for the "In the Trenches" event, news broke of a change to the One Chicago lineup: Chicago Fire would air at 8 p.m. ET, followed by Chicago Med at 9 p.m. ET and then Chicago P.D. at 10 p.m. ET, all on January 29. This marks a switch for Med and Fire, with the former usually airing first on NBC's One Chicago Wednesdays. When I spoke with Med showrunner Allen MacDonald, I asked about why Med changed places with Fire for the crossover, and he explained:
That's a good question. They did that, I believe, with the 'Infection' crossover. I'm certain they did, and it's just a matter of, when you tell a big story like this, it's just simply [that] there's an event that happens that is the inciting incident, that catalyzes the story. And if there's some kind of event like that, it's going to be Fire that responds, and then there's going to be people that are injured that need to go to the hospital, so that brings them to Med.
As MacDonald mentioned, the "Infection" crossover of 2019 (available streaming now with a Peacock subscription) also swapped Med and Fire in the lineup while keeping P.D. as the third and final entry. Neither the doctors of Gaffney nor the cops of the Intelligence Unit would be the first called to the scene of fiery explosion, after all, so it tracks. So, if that's the reason for Med airing after Fire, what requires the help of the P.D. crew? The Med boss of course didn't spoil the plot of the first crossover in five+ years, but he did go on:
And then – I'm not saying this is what happens – but the P.D. characters suspect this might not have been an accident. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't, but they definitely look into the possibility that it was intentional, so that investigation is naturally going to be the closing out of the storyline. When you're telling a big story with all three shows, that seems like the most natural way to tell it.
While One Chicago has been one multi-show universe ever since Chicago P.D. spun off from Fire in 2014 and then Med joined in 2015, "In the Trenches" will be the first three-parter for Allen MacDonald as solo showrunner of Med, Andrea Newman as solo showrunner of Fire, and Gwen Sigan as solo showrunner of P.D. MacDonald addressed the conversations that he had with his fellow showrunners, saying:
It's a lot of putting our heads together and trying to come up with different scenarios. The three writers came up with different scenarios and pitched them, but they were pitched on big Zoom meetings that the showrunners were on, and the producing directors, because each show's producing director directed the episodes. It was challenging, and there were a lot of voices and a lot of people with opinions working in tandem to make this as great as possible, and I think that we've succeeded.
MacDonald credited writers Victor Teran (Fire), Joe Halpin (P.D.), and Stephen Hootstein (Med) with pitching various ideas to Wolf Entertainment before the production team "chose the one they ended up doing," and wrote the scripts "with a lot of input" from the showrunners and Wolf Entertainment.
What Allen MacDonald Originally Wasn't Going to Reveal
With the ensemble casts of three shows in the mix and more than 500 episodes of crises across the franchise, it was anybody's guess what would happen in "In the Trenches" and whose lives would be at stake. Speaking with CinemaBlend, MacDonald could at least share how he felt when he watched the crossover for the first time without dropping any major spoilers:
Well, you've spent months reading the scripts and the different drafts of the scripts and seeing how it changes. And what's kind of magical when you watch it all together is you think you're going to have that all in your head, but at least my brain just releases everything that came before. Because when it's visualized and on screen with all the actors and all the stunts, you just get caught up in it as a watcher, as a fan, and it's very, very satisfying and suspenseful and, most importantly for me, emotional.
Fortunately for fans who have been dying for more details, a promo for the event aired after the latest One Chicago episodes with footage of what's to come. And "what's to come" doesn't look great for some Fire and P.D. characters in particular! I chatted with Allen MacDonald the day after that promo aired on NBC, and he said:
There's some pretty heavy stuff that happens in the three hours. It's a storyline that goes through all three hours. If you saw the preview last night, you know Trudy Platt's life is in peril, and Mouch comes to Med. It's just an agonizing, emotional storyline.
It's not entirely shocking for a One Chicago character to have a medical crisis in a crossover; Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) was exposed to the contagion in the "Infection" event, and Sergeant Trudy Platt is evidently the one we should worry about this time around. It was still a big reveal to happen in the promo, and when I noted to the executive producers that the preview really hit on all the emotion for all three shows, MacDonald responded:
It did, and then also, as one of the showrunners I watched it, and before this I was told not to talk about Stella Kidd and Ruzek being in the subway, not to talk about [how] Platt's life is in danger. And then it's all in the preview, and I'm just like, 'Well, I guess I can talk about that now!'... We're all really proud of it, and I think that the fans are going to eat it up like candy. [laughs] It's good stuff.
Thanks to NBC's preview, Allen MacDonald was able to at least shout out how Stella and Ruzek are going to be stuck in the subway in the crossover, as well as that Platt's life is in danger with Mouch quite distraught. If you missed the promo when it first aired last week or usually just stream episodes of One Chicago, take a look:
Will "In the Trenches" be worth the wait for One Chicago fans who have been crossing their fingers for a crossover going back 2019? We'll have to tune in to NBC on Wednesday, January 29 starting with Fire in Med's usual time slot at 8 p.m. ET. Get comfortable on your couch for the full three hours, because the consensus among showrunners as well as Med star Steven Weber is that this is going to feel like one big Avengers-esque movie, not three separate episodes.
As for the aftermath of whatever goes down in the three-parter, we at least can say with certainty that Med and Fire will switch back to their usual slots the week after.
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