It’s been a few days since we learned that Chicago P.D. had started making moves to fill the voids left by veteran series actor Jon Seda as well as John C. McGinley. First, Chicago P.D. signed on Paul Adelstein to take over for John C. McGinley’s role as the interim superintendent and start filling the void on the series. Now, the show has signed on a “gritty” cop to further that goal.
News broke this week that Chicago P.D. has signed on Lisseth Chavez to play a new character named Vanessa Rojas. This character will be an undercover cop, who is listed with the aforementioned grit, as well as having “street smarts.”
The actress comes to Chicago P.D. after a major stint on The Fosters, where she played Ximen Sinfuego. Since that gig ended in 2018, she’s popped up in a slew of guest starring roles, appearing in Get Christie Love, The OA and Station 19.
The Chicago P.D. role will be a larger one again though. Deadline notes the actress will be recurring during Season 7. However, assumedly her character has the potential to become a major member of the cast and take over for Jon Seda’s character, as the show has given the actress an option to move forward into fulltime work should the character be a good fit.
It’s pretty similar to what I assume could happen with Paul Adelstein during Season 7. That character has been signed on as “interim” superintendent, so it’s unclear if the character could go from recurring to something more down the line as well. We’ll have to wait and see.
Chicago P.D. has seen major exits before, and those exits have not always gone as smoothly as Seda’s; still Jon Seda was a really big deal for fans. He’d been on the NBC series since Season 1. Also, the Season 6 finale really didn’t give fans a ton of time to say goodbye or get used to the idea of the character not being back this season. Particularly given this means that now both Dawson siblings are out of the Chicago universe; Monica Raymund, who played Senior Police Detective Antonio Dawson's sister Gabriela Dawson, left Chicago Fire at the end of Season 6 of that show and barely popped in during Season 7 to wrap her storyline. Chicago Fire is headed into Season 8 this fall.
Related: No Jon Seda Will Not Be Returning To Chicago P.D., But He Did Thank Fans
Needless to say, it’s going to be an interesting season with a lot of new faces. Sometimes it can be tough to come into a show and find a niche for a new character when there are other longterm people around. That’s not always the case, and we wish Lisseth Chavez the best of luck.
Chicago P.D. will return to the schedule on NBC this September, on the 25th of the month to be specific. To take a full look at premiere dates, be sure to check out our full schedule.
