If you thought the most exciting news out of NBC's One Chicago world this week would be that the fall finales are quickly approaching in the 2024 TV schedule, you may be happy to be wrong! Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., and Chicago Med are reportedly set for the franchise's very first three-show crossover since back in 2019. The news comes shortly after stars from the series told CinemaBlend how far into the current seasons they've filmed for episodes that will air as part of the 2025 TV schedule.
One Chicago's Long-Awaited Crossover
While nobody from NBCUniversal has confirmed the exciting news at the time of writing, TVLine cites sources that a three-part, one-night crossover event is in the works for later in the 2024-2025 TV season. This would be One Chicago's first since the pre-pandemic three-parter that was about – of all things – an infection requiring quarantines in Chicago in late 2019. (You can revisit the "Infection" crossover with a Peacock subscription now.)
According to the outlet, the storyline would involve an office building explosion big enough to affect the entire city both below and above ground. That already sounds like the kind of crisis that truly would require the services of firefighters, cops, and medical professionals!
That said, Deadline reports (also via sources) that one single storyline has not been settled on with any details, which suggests that this crossover – if officially moving forward, as expected – is still in the very early planning stages. This is the first news of a three-parter in the 2024-2025 TV season, although the Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., and Chicago Med showrunners revealed they had a text thread to keep their series aligned when speaking with CinemaBlend early in the fall.
More recently, I spoke with stars from all three shows, and they shared how far ahead they've filmed this season. Their comments may give away a bit about this potential crossover, if we look closely.
What The Stars Told Us About The 2024-2025 TV Season
I was fortunate enough to speak with Chicago Fire's David Eigenberg about Herrmann's path, Chicago P.D.'s Benjamin Levy Aguilar about BTS fun, and Chicago Med's Steven Weber about Archer's tough arc during NBC's One Chicago press junket. The event happen before news broke of the possible three-show crossover, and just days before the newest episodes aired on November 13. I asked the three stars how far they've filmed in their respective seasons. First up, Eigenberg shared:
We're shooting Episode 11, I believe. I was out for a couple [episodes]. I snapped my Achilles tendon, so I got knocked out for a bit. It's been been a weird year.
Filming Episode 11 in mid-November meant that the Fire team has already shot multiple episodes beyond the upcoming fall finale, which will be the eighth installment of Season 13. David Eigenberg wasn't dropping any fall finale spoilers, though, as he joked over Zoom:
You'd have to be here and break my arm to get anything out of me!
I spoke next with Benjamin Levy Aguilar, ahead of an episode that would involve some undercover action. He shared what Chicago P.D. has filmed:
We're currently filming Episode 11, so we're halfway there.
Steven Weber was the third of the One Chicago stars I spoke with during NBC's virtual junket, and he commented on more than just Archer and Lenox's breaking point. He said this about what Chicago Med has shot:
We are up to, I want to say, Episode 10 or 11, so we've done a lot. About halfway through.
Do these comments shed any light on an explosion that could rock the Windy City for a full night of primetime in 2025? Of course not, but all three shows filming their respective eleventh episodes indicates that Fire, P.D., and Med have remained in sync ever since starting the new seasons with the same time jump. In theory, perhaps that could make a crossover go a little more smoothly behind the scenes.
With the shortage of details about plans for the plot of a crossover, we can also pretty safely guess that the event would air considerably later in 2025 than Episode 11 of each show. If One Chicago returns to NBC's lineup very early in the new year like usual, then Episode 11 likely airs in late January or early February since the fall finales are each show's eighth episode.
Basically, if I was a betting woman, I wouldn't predict a One Chicago crossover event any earlier than March, but only time will tell. I did ask David Eigenberg how it feels for him to return to a usual 22-episode season after the shorter-than-usual Season 12, and he gave this response:
We have a weird show because we're a little bit incestuous, in a loving work family sense. We've had tough days when life occurs and things occur around us in everybody's lives that are hard, but in terms of the personalities, we genuinely really like each other, so we laugh almost all day. The people that run the set… when somebody new comes in, they're like, 'It's like herding cats.' And they have to calm us down… because we're not a mopey set, and people aren't concerned heavily with their careers in a way that sometimes happens in the industry. We're all there for each other. I was talking to a bunch of people this morning about some life stuff going on, and we just care.
Unfortunately, fans are nearly out of new episodes for the rest of the year, and a three-parter hasn't even been officially confirmed with any details yet. The One Chicago fall finales air on Wednesday, November 20 starting with Chicago Med at 8 p.m. ET, continuing with Chicago Fire at 9 p.m. ET, and finishing with Chicago P.D. at 10 p.m. ET, all on NBC.
You can always revisit earlier crossovers during winter hiatus, though, with every episode of all three shows so far streaming on Peacock.
