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Jesse Spencer is starring in a new project following his departure from Chicago Fire. Spencer’s new series, Last Days of the Space Age promises to be a very different role from Captain Matthew Casey. Jesse Spencer left Chicago Fire as a series regular at the end of Season 10, but returned for guest appearances during Seasons 11 and 12.
What’s Jesse Spencer Doing Next After Leaving Chicago Fire?
Spencer now stars in Last Days of the Space Age, “set in 1979 Western Australia, when Perth was at the center of the world’s headlines,” according to a Hulu press release of the show’s synopsis. “A power strike threatens to plunge the region into darkness, while the city hosts the iconic Miss Universe pageant and the U.S. space station, Skylab, crashes just beyond the city’s suburbs. Against this backdrop of international cultural and political shifts, three families in a tight-knit coastal community find their marriages, friendships and futures put to the test.”
“It’s the end of an era, and everything is about to change,” the synopsis explains. “History is at a turning point, with a global beauty pageant creating a media frenzy. But that’s nothing compared to the drama three seemingly ordinary families are enduring — in a town which will never be the same.”
Spencer stars alongside Radha Mitchell, who play husband and wife Tony and Judy Bissett. Deborah Mailman and Linh-Dan Pham play their neighbors, Eileen Wilberforce and Sandy Bui. Iain Glen, George Mason, Vico Thai, Ines English, Jacek Koman, Mackenzie Mazur, Emily Grant, Thomas Weatherall, and Aidan Chiem round out the cast.
In a 2021 interview with Us Weekly, Spencer shared the thought process behind his difficult decision to leave Chicago Fire.
“I realized I’ve been doing TV for a long time. I added it up, and I think this year is my 18th year of network television… I called [showrunner] Derek [Haas] and broke him the news, said I thought it was time to leave the show, and he agreed that we should at least get Casey to 200 episodes,” he explained.
“And it was a difficult decision because I’ve 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, and 18 years is a long time. That’s a long stretch,” Spencer added.
The actor explained that the decision to leave Chicago Fire, as hard as it was, felt right. “I was marking off these milestones and looking to the future… Derek didn’t want me to leave, but we both agreed that if it was time for me, then it was time,” Spencer shared. “So it was a difficult decision… but you know, when the time comes, the time comes.”
