During Chicago Fire‘s recent season finale, Herrmann admitted that a desk job, like chief, is not for him and went to Commissioner Grissom with a proposition. Herrmann stepped down to be a regular firefighter so that his friend Mouch could step up as Engine’s lieutenant. The efficiency expert’s warning in an earlier episode that layoffs and forced resignations are coming was on top of Herrmann’s mind as he made his decision.
“They are going to be coming for both of us soon enough,” Herrmann told Mouch, but until then, he wants to work alongside his best friend.
Showrunner Andrea Newman acknowledges that the seed planted by the layoffs news could prove an explanation for some exiting cast members’ absence. Jake Lockett and Daniel Kyri, who play firefighters Sam Carver and Darren Ritter, are not returning as series regulars, but their storylines were not wrapped up in the Season 13 finale. Carver did, however, reveal that he applied for a job with the Denver Fire Department.
The layoffs twist “wasn’t even done intentionally for that, but because it’s so in the zeitgeist, people coming in and gutting departments and gutting places, it’s very real to the CFD. They’ve done that, too,” Newman says. “And so, that is definitely happening next season.”
With that storyline will come some big changes: “We’re going to have a lot of turnover,” Newman previews, “and a lot craziness going on in the CFD from the top, where people are being cut and moved, and everything’s going to get shaken up next season.”
So should fans be preparing themselves to say goodbye to even more characters as the CFD undergoes an overhaul?
“You never know,” Newman hedges, before adding, “There will be hellos, and there will be goodbyes. I’ll say that. That’s for sure.”
And even the big boss, Dermot Mulroney’s Dom Pascal, will not be exempt from the possible cuts. With Herrmann opting not to pursue the chief position at Firehouse 51, Pascal “will stay as battalion chief until the CFD axe starts lurking above his head. Who knows if that will happen,” Newman teases.
