Wednesday nights are whole again! The One Chicago trifecta—Chicago Med (Season 11), Chicago Fire (Season 14), and Chicago P.D. (Season 13)—have roared back onto our screens, and the season premieres have already set the stage for explosive, emotional, and high-stakes drama.
From a shocking baby twist and cast exits in Firehouse 51 to a morally murky murder in Intelligence and an unexpected pregnancy at Gaffney Medical, each show ended its last season with a gut-punch or a cliffhanger. Now that the dust is settling, it’s time to look ahead.
Here are the biggest storylines and the most likely predictions for the new seasons of the interconnected franchise.
🔥 Chicago Fire: Season 14 Predictions
The Theme: Redefining Family and Testing Leadership.
Chicago Fire is navigating an unprecedented level of cast turnover and emotional trauma, making Season 14 a massive inflection point.
Prediction 1: Stellaride’s Unconventional Family Path Will Succeed 👨👩👦
The most immediate and devastating shock from the premiere was Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) and Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) losing their surprise pregnancy, only to be immediately presented with the chance to adopt a troubled teenager.
Prediction: The writers gave Stellaride the baby loss to pivot them into the more interesting, less-trodden path of adopting an older child. This adoption story will be challenging but ultimately successful. It perfectly aligns with Stella’s passion for mentorship through the Girls on Fire program and creates realistic work/life balance drama for two active lieutenants. This teenager will be their permanent family member by the mid-season finale, cementing a new, complex family unit for the show.
Prediction 2: Lieutenant Kidd vs. Vasquez Will Be a Season-Long Arc
New firefighter Sal Vasquez (Brandon Larracuente) is clearly being set up as a major challenge for Stella Kidd’s leadership on Truck 81. He’s cocky, reckless, and hides a mysterious police academy background.
Prediction: Kidd will spend the first half of the season trying to figure out if Vasquez is a genuine threat or just an undisciplined recruit. Her efforts to get him transferred will be blocked by internal political forces (possibly connected to the new political intrigue involving the Mayor’s Chief of Staff and Battalion Chief Pascal). By the end of the season, Kidd will expose a dangerous secret about Vasquez’s past, likely a police corruption angle, that forces his exit and validates her sharp leadership instincts.
Prediction 3: Ritter’s Exit is Permanent, Carver’s Return is to Say Goodbye 👋
Daniel Kyri’s Darren Ritter is confirmed to be on the way out, and Jake Lockett’s Sam Carver is returning for a limited run.
Prediction: Ritter will depart to pursue a stable, safe, and less chaotic career (perhaps in the CFD’s Public Relations or Investigations unit) that allows him to build the quiet life he desires. Carver’s limited return will be to fully resolve his relationship with Violet Mikami (Hanako Greensmith). They will share a final, heartbreaking moment where they acknowledge their deep love but recognize their conflicting paths—Carver needing space to heal, Violet choosing her life at Firehouse 51. This gives Violet the emotional closure she needs to move on.
🚨 Chicago P.D.: Season 13 Predictions
The Theme: The Consequence of Moral Compromise.
The Season 12 finale saw Sergeant Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) effectively orchestrate the murder of corrupt Deputy Chief Charlie Reid to save his Intelligence Unit from being disbanded. Chicago P.D. has promised Season 13 will explore the fallout and moral cost of that action.
Prediction 1: Voight’s Secret Will Be Weaponized Against Him 🔪
Voight’s confidante, ASA Nina Chapman, knows he set the dominoes in motion that led to Reid’s death, and she is furious about it.
Prediction: Chapman will not immediately report Voight, but his murderous secret will hang over the Intelligence Unit, preventing them from regaining their former autonomy and trust. Chapman will use the threat of exposure as leverage to force Voight to adhere to stricter ethical rules and work on politically sensitive cases she dictates, making her the new internal antagonist for the first half of the season.
Prediction 2: Atwater Gets a New Love Interest and a Major Case
The show has teased a focus on Officer Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins) and new “fun guest stars” for his storyline.
Prediction: Atwater’s personal life will finally get a long-term storyline through a new love interest who is deeply embedded in the community he protects, creating classic P.D. conflict. Professionally, Atwater will take the lead on a major, multi-episode storyline involving community violence and systemic racism. This storyline will force him to confront the moral gray area between Voight’s methods and the more traditional police work preferred by his potential new partner or love interest.
Prediction 3: Burzek’s Marriage is Immediately Tested
The Burgess (Marina Squerciati) and Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) wedding was a momentary high amid the chaos. Now, they must figure out what marriage looks like in the high-stress, high-danger world of Intelligence.
Prediction: Their commitment will be immediately tested by a professional crisis that threatens the stability they desperately seek. We predict a storyline where Ruzek, still dealing with the trauma of his near-fatal shooting and the emotional whiplash of the past few years, makes a career-risking mistake in the field. Burgess, now his wife, will have to choose between protecting her marriage and protecting the unit, putting immense strain on their newly forged family unit.
🩺 Chicago Med: Season 11 Predictions
The Theme: Life, Death, and Ethical Dilemmas.
Chicago Med Season 11 returns with budget cuts threatening personnel, a shocking pregnancy, and a major character facing a terminal diagnosis.
Prediction 1: Hannah Asher’s Baby-Daddy is Dr. Mitch Ripley 👶
The central Season 11 mystery is who fathered Dr. Hannah Asher’s (Jessy Schram) baby: her former on-again, off-again boyfriend, Dr. Mitch Ripley (Luke Mitchell), or her close, lovelorn colleague Dr. Dean Archer (Steven Weber).
Prediction: Despite the dramatic tension of an Archer-paternity reveal, the father will be Dr. Mitch Ripley. Ripley’s history with addiction and his current entanglement with a woman he rescued will make him feel “ambivalence” (as the showrunner teased), forcing Hannah to decide whether to raise the child alone or fight for a stable family. This choice will be complicated by Archer’s protective, paternal behavior toward Hannah, creating a subtle, dramatic triangle that drives the first half of the season.
Prediction 2: Dr. Lenox’s Prion Disease Secret Will Lead to a Tragic Heroism Arc
Dr. Caitlin Lenox (Sarah Ramos) learned she inherited a fatal, life-shortening motor-neuron disease and has chosen to keep it secret.
Prediction: Lenox, who is on the autism spectrum, will channel her limited time into an obsessive pursuit of cutting-edge, experimental treatments, not for herself, but for her patients. This will lead her to take extreme risks and blur ethical lines in the ED. Her secret will be exposed when she suffers a sudden, acute medical episode during a high-stakes emergency, forcing her colleagues (likely Dr. Daniel Charles or Dr. Dean Archer) to treat her. This revelation will lead to a devastating mid-season arc where the Gaffney team must watch one of their own rapidly decline.
Prediction 3: The “Difficult Cuts” Will Result in Maggie’s Exit (and a Return for Dr. Halstead)
Showrunner Allen MacDonald confirmed that Charge Nurse Maggie Lockwood (Marlyne Barrett) is taking a leave of absence, and the season will feature Dr. Will Halstead’s (Nick Gehlfuss) return for multiple episodes.
Prediction: The “difficult cuts to hospital personnel” that Sharon Goodwin (S. Epatha Merkerson) must enforce will be the narrative reason for Maggie Lockwood’s long-anticipated exit. Maggie will volunteer to take a buyout or early retirement to save a younger nurse’s job, giving her character a heroic farewell. Dr. Will Halstead’s return, initially for a visit, will evolve into him temporarily filling the void left by a former colleague’s departure, a surprise storyline that could last through the season’s latter half.
The new seasons of One Chicago promise a roller coaster of emotions and drama. The themes of new beginnings forged through loss, the consequences of difficult choices, and the eternal challenge of balancing professional pressure with personal life are all set to explode. Now it’s your turn: which prediction do you think is spot on, and what bold twists are you betting on? Drop your thoughts below!
