Chicago Fire has come to an end in the 2024 TV schedule with a fall finale that called all the way back to Season 1 for Joe Cruz, but something important was missing from the episode. That is, someone important was missing: Taylor Kinney was nowhere to be seen as Kelly Severide. In light of his prolonged absence in the second half of Season 11, it would be easy to worry that this is the beginning of another Severide story that takes him away from Firehouse 51 for an arc. I don't think fans should worry, though, thanks to a development from back in 2023.
How Chicago Fire Explained Severide's Absence
There was plenty happening in the fall finale, with arcs ranging from the very serious like Cruz facing his past to the more lighthearted like Ritter considering moving in with his boyfriend. Chicago Fire did spare a few moments to establish why Severide was MIA, and it's not because of an ongoing fire inspection training program like in Season 11 that was used to explain Taylor Kinney's leave of absence.
To quote Cruz in the last episode of Season 13 in 2024 (which you can stream with a Peacock subscription) before the 2025 TV schedule picks up,"Severide's got some fire inspection boondoggle in Michigan." Now, I don't know what qualifies as a "boondoggle" in the world of One Chicago, but it certainly doesn't sound too dire! Plus, Stella had an update on her husband later in the episode, when Violet asked how he was doing in Michigan:
Good, but he's decided to come back a little early. Which, of course, I'm happy about.
Deciding to come back early sounds a whole lot better for the Stellaride journey than when he kept prolonging his absence back in Season 11 without even telling Stella! All in all, the storyline of the fall finale set up that Severide's absence was very temporary, and the promo for the winter premiere in 2025 confirms that he'll be back early in the new year. And if I'm right, there's a completely innocent reason for his absence to end 2024 that definitely wasn't foreshadowing another version of what went down a couple seasons ago.
Why Chicago Fire Cast Members (Including Taylor Kinney) Have Missed Episodes
For why I'm not the slightest bit worried about Severide missing a major episode, we need to look back to April 2023, before the WGA writers strike and SAG-AFTRA actors strike began. At the time, Deadline reported that the renewals for NBC's then-six shows – Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., Chicago Med, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, and Law & Order: Organized Crime – came with a change: cast members would remain series regulars but appear in fewer episodes to cut costs for an overall season without reducing actors' episodic fees.
At the time – which was well before Organized Crime Season 5 was slated to release on Peacock instead of NBC alongside SVU – I took that to mean that One Chicago and Law & Order fans would see less of their favorites in the next seasons, but nothing more serious than that. There's no reason to believe that the approach changed from the 2023-2024 TV season to the current 2024-2025 TV season, and other Fire cast members have already missed episodes.
Perhaps it was just Taylor Kinney's turn, although it's worth noting that David Eigenberg told CinemaBlend that he "snapped [his] Achilles tendon" and that's why Herrmann "was out for a couple [episodes]." All in all, I think Kinney missing an important episode was due to budget rather than story, and the episode honestly had so much going on that I don't think it was missing anything with Severide in Michigan.
If you're already missing Severide, though, you can revisit every earlier episode of Chicago Fire streaming on Peacock until One Chicago returns in 2025. All three shows will be back with their winter premieres on Wednesday, January 8 on NBC, starting with Med at 8 p.m. ET before Fire at 9 p.m. ET and then P.D. at 10 p.m. ET.
