Chicago Fire fans devastated over reports of cast shakeup
Things are changing at Firehouse 51. According to a new report from Deadline, Daniel Kyri and Jake Lockett, two long-standing members of the cast, will not be returning so NBC renews Chicago Fire for a fourteenth installation.
Daniel and Jake, who are known and loved for playing firefighters Darren Ritter and Sam Carver, are expected to leave as part of an “effort to trim the budget of Chicago Fire”.
Confirming the news, Daniel, 30, took to Instagram on Wednesday evening. “I’ll miss this character, and it’s time to move on,” he began. “Thank you to the cast, crew & the awesome fans.”
As for Jake, the actor has not yet commented publicly.
Amid the cast shake-up, there has been no word on the fates of veteran cast members such as Taylor Kinney and Miranda Rae Mayo, whose contracts are reported up. In the meantime, viewers have taken to Instagram, where they voiced their upset over Daniel and Jake’s departures.
“This is absolutely devastating. I love Daniel and @thejakelockett so much,” wrote one. “This post is why we need a dislike button,” added a second.
“I started watching the series because of Carver and Violet, now it turns out that they are going to take him away from us,” wrote a third. “Nooooooo. I really didn’t need this today. Those two characters were great for the show,” declared a fourth.
Following its inception in 2012, Chicago Fire has bid to some amazing actors, including Eamonn Walker and Jesse Spencer.
After a 12 stint as Wallace Boden, Eamonn left the show in 2024, with NBC clarifying that he will make occasional appearances in a recurring capacity. While the TV star has never revealed the reasons for his exit, there’s clearly no hard feelings as he recently popped up in season 13 of Chicago Fire.
As for Jesse Spencer, the Matt Casey alum waved goodbye in 2021, after noting that he wanted to try new things. “This was a difficult decision because I have loved the show from the start, but there are other things that I would like to do in the future, and there’s some family that I need to take care of,” he said. “I was marking off these milestones and looking to the future … and it was time.”
Since leaving Firehouse 51, Jesse has appeared as Tony Bisset in the Australian drama, Last Days of the Space Age, which premiered on Disney+ in October 2024.
