Some minor spoilers for last season of Chicago Fire can be found in this article, along with some quotes from the upcoming season, out this week on NBC!
At the end of Season 7 of Chicago Fire, a large fire left the show on a huge cliffhanger when a lot of the group we've come to know and love were stuck in a mattress factory at the time a major fire started. We’ve known for a while the Season 8 premiere would be “brutal” and “devastating,” which pretty much made it seem like someone would be dying during the show’s big return to the fall schedule on NBC. However, that was more guesswork than confirmed, at least until showrunner Derek Haas revealed a few more details related to the episode indicating a tragedy is on the way.
We’re in the basement, the boiler’s about to explode. There’s fire everywhere and all of our characters in jeopardy. It’s not one of those promotion fake outs, which we’ve certainly been guilty of in the past. There’s going to be a real tragedy that will involve, not only our 51 family, but also innocent people. This is a real nasty call to start out the season.
Reading this, Derek Haas doesn’t say there’s 100% a death coming, but he does say real tragedy is coming in his interview with Us Weekly. All teases have seemingly pointed toward a death, particularly given he confirms what's coming is not a promotional "fake out." So, who is leaving the show? It's even possible the fatality number could be higher than what's typical for this show, with both civilians and maybe even a fireman or paramedic lost.
Although NBC’s Chicago-based shows have announced some exits heading into the current season, including Jon Seda leaving Chicago P.D., apparently the Season 7 finale of Chicago Fire was written before it was determined how the premiere conflict would play out at the beginning of the following season. He said:
About two weeks after our hiatus started, I was talking to our head writers and that’s when we came up with where this was going to go.
So, whatever ends up happening during the premiere wasn’t decided when the big episode aired at the last season. While Derek Haas isn’t giving any major spoilers away ahead of time, he did tell the outlet “there’s an injury that’s also bad,” which makes it sound tough overall for Firehouse 51.
In fact, we know things are going to be bad, given these are the sorts of images NBC has already released from the episode “Sacred Ground” ahead of its premiere.
Luckily, while these teases have seemingly pointed to a big “tragedy” for a while now, we won’t have too much longer to wait to find out where this whole storyline is going. Chicago Fire is back on Wednesday, September 25 at 9 p.m. ET. It will be preceded by Chicago Med and Chicago P.D. will follow afterward on that same evening.
To take a look at all the big fall premieres, check out our full fall schedule.
