“How our characters either fall in line or kind of resist is going to provide some exciting heat this season,” Fire’s Daniel Kyri told NBC Insider.
Excitement for Chicago Fire Season 13 is at an all-time high, for both fans and the cast.
“There’s a kind of giddiness,” Daniel Kyri (Ritter) told NBC Insider about what it’s like filming the show. “There’s a back-to-school feeling coming back and just getting the chance to do this again. It’s not lost on us how sort of rare this air kind of is. To be able to come back and tell these stories and to do it with people that you respect and you love working with.”
That group of people is changing slightly this season with the addition of Dermot Mulroney’s Chief Dom Pascal, who’s taking the helm at 51. If that’s not intriguing enough, we still have many cliffhangers left to address from Season 12. What’s the deal with Severide’s secret brother? Are Severide and Stella (Miranda Rae Mayo) on solid ground? Will Violet (Hanako Greensmith) and Sam Carver (Jake Lockett) get together for real?
“We’ve got some new faces coming in Season 13, and there is some active clashing going on between characters that will leave our audience wondering who’s right and who’s wrong in these situations and interactions…,” Kyri added. “To see how our characters either fall in line or kind of resist is going to provide some exciting heat this season for fans. So stay tuned for that because things get explosive.”
Read, below, some thoughts from Chicago Fire showrunner Andrea Newman on what’s to come on the show.
Chicago Fire showrunner Andrea Newman talks Season 13
NBC Insider: Now that everyone’s back on set, what are the vibes like?
Andrea Newman: It’s been an incredibly exciting beginning, and Dermot arriving is part of that. Having a new boss on the set, it’s a little earthquake in terms of all the character dynamics. But it’s also like hitting a refresh button… It feels like a whole new wave of things are coming on that we haven’t seen before, so everybody’s excited about that.
What can fans expect from Season 13 of Chicago Fire?
Thirteen seasons in, and we have a new boss for the first time. We’ve changed leadership in the house, so I just think there are a lot of new character dynamics that we haven’t seen before. He’s coming in definitely not trying to be Chief Boden [Eamonn Walker] and wanting to carve his own path there.
The first shift, he says, “I’m not Chief Boden, I’m not trying to, and there’s going to be some new rules around the firehouse.” So we know right away that there are changes to come. And how everybody reacts to them is gonna be a lot of fun to watch over the season.
What is the biggest difference between Boden and Pascal?
[Firehouse 51 is] a family, and Boden has said in the past, “When someone leaves, they’re never really gone.” They’re always present in some way or another, and he’s the guy whose door was always open and was basically the dad of this family. Chief Pascal is coming and playing things much closer to the vest.
He’s kind of a man of mystery. And he’s a student of our 51 crew, and he’s gonna be studying people carefully. And his background is gonna be a mystery to our guys. The audience will get a little peek into his private life in the first episode and going forward, but the people of 51 don’t really know much about him yet. And everybody’s trying to sort of peel back those layers and find out who this guy is and what he’s really about.
Boden previously tapped Herrmann as his replacement, but there were some bureaucratic hurdles that he needed to navigate. Now we have Pascal coming in. Will Boden’s blessing cause issues between Pascal and Herrmann?
The fun part of this is there is a process to becoming a chief, and there are tests you need to take. And Herrmann (David Eigenberg) knew that, and there’s forward motion for him as he’s going towards that. But while he’s going towards trying to pass those tests and get that title, there’s somebody sitting in his seat already, this Chief Pascal…
They can’t both sit in that chair. It’s not big enough, so there will definitely be some issues between them and then some surprising turns in that relationship, too.
While Boden isn’t at Firehouse 51 anymore, he’s still in the city as the CFD Deputy Commissioner. Can fans expect any potential pop-ins from the former chief this season?
He’s present. We talked a lot this season about the theme of shadows. And Boden’s shadow is very much over the firehouse. When Pascal comes in, he’s got big shoes to fill, and he knows it. But [Boden’s] not far away… He’s shaped who these people are in so many ways, so you feel it in that way. But also, he’s the deputy commissioner now, so he’s part of the CFD, and he will definitely make an appearance at some point with our gang.
Season 12 ended with the total jaw-dropper that Severide had an estranged brother, Damon. How will Damon’s continued presence at 51 complicate Severide’s relationship with Stella?
It is a big complication. It’s a little bomb that was dropped there. That Kidd’s Damon’s boss, and she has to decide now if she trusts him enough to keep him in the firehouse, and how Severide feels about that — there’s a triangle there. It’s a meaningful relationship to Severide that he wants to cultivate and get to know the kid, but at the same time, there’s some questions about who Damon is and how he kept the secrets leading up to it from his boss and Severide’s wife.
How is Stellaride doing at the start of Season 13?
The [Stellaride] relationship is solid, but there are definitely issues that Damon brings up. And they kind of touch upon the whole idea of family that Severide was floating between him and Kidd at the end of last season, too. This kid is now part of his family, and how he thinks about that and how the shadow of [his late father] Benny Severide plays into that will affect their relationship, Kidd’s and Severide’s, Stellaride, going forward. But they’re very much in love and a very close couple, so it’s always fun to see them navigate all the big issues, including the future for both of them.
Violet and Carver quickly became an obsession last season but ended on rocky terms. Where does the relationship stand at the beginning of Season 13?
There’s a lot of drama between the two of them. I’d say they’re on a rollercoaster. So it ended on kind of like a precipice there, and they have a lot to work out, and I think there’s a lot of fun back and forth between them at the beginning of the season. And when I say fun, I think I mean tortured — the tortured kind of fun.
Paramedic Lyla “Lizzie” Novak was an exciting addition in Season 12, will we be diving into her more as a character this season?
Absolutely. We are gonna get to know Novak (Jocelyn Hudon) on a much deeper level this season. She’s got this incredible empathy that makes her such a good paramedic, and we’re gonna get into the history of that and how it came to be.
Where is Cruz’s journey taking him in Season 13 of Fire?
We love Cruz (Joe Minoso). Cruz has a great journey this season. He’s professionally kind of killing it right now and being a mentor to those younger than him, but he’s got some great stories coming up. Having 12 seasons of history in a show is such a gift. You get to dive back in there. There’s a theme of shadows, and we’ve seen shadows and ghosts over Season 13. And Cruz is gonna’ have a ghost from the past appear back in his life. That’s gonna be kind of a shocker for him and for the audience, I think. There’s a fun story there.
If you had to describe the Season 13 premiere of Chicago Fire in three words, what would they be?
Mysterious, explosive, and revealing. Things are gonna’ get shaken up and turned on their head.
