Chicago Fire Season 12 Preview: See Taylor Kinney Return For the First Time in Almost a Year (2024)

Image: Adrian S Burrows Sr/NBC via Getty Images

1/12

<p>Do Casey and Brett get engaged? Does Mouch die? What happened to Severide? Since last season’s shocking finale, One Chicago fans have had never-ending questions about who’s in the <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/gallery/who-dies-chicago-fire/" target="_blank"><em>Chicago Fire</em> Season 12 cast</a> and which cast members are coming back and leaving.</p><p><a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/tag/chicago-fire/" target="_blank"><em>Chicago Fire</em></a> is NBC’s drama series following the personal and professional lives of firefighters, paramedics and other rescue personnel at the Chicago Fire Department’s fictional Firehouse 51. The series — which premiered in 2012 and is created by Dick Wolf, the same mind behind the <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/tag/law-order-svu/" target="_blank"><em>Law & Order</em></a> and <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/tag/fbi/" target="_blank"><em>FBI</em></a> franchises — is the first show in NBC’s One Chicago franchise, which also includes <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/tag/chicago-pd/" target="_blank"><em>Chicago P.D.</em></a> and <em><a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/tag/chicago-med/" target="_blank">Chicago Med</a>.</em></p><p>The <em>Chicago Fire</em> Season 11 cast included: Taylor Kinney (Kelly Severide); Eamonn Walker (Wallace Boden); David Eigenberg (Christopher Herrmann); Joe Minoso (Joe Cruz); Christian Stolte (Mouch McHolland); Kara Kilmer (Sylvie Brett); Miranda Rae Mayo (Stella Kidd); Daniel Kyri (Darren Ritter); Alberto Rosende (Blake Gallo) and Hanako Greensmith (Violet Mikami). However, as One Chicago fans know, not everyone comes out of the Dick Wolf universe alive.</p><p>Read on for what we know about the <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/gallery/who-leave-chicago-fire/" target="_blank"><em>Chicago Fire</em> Season 12 cast</a> so far and the fan theories about which characters are coming back and leaving One Chicago for good.</p>

Image: NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

2/12

<p>Is <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/soaps/news/663555/why-taylor-kinney-leave-chicago-fire/" target="_blank">Kelly Severide coming back for <em>Chicago Fire</em> Season 12</a>? The answer is unclear. Taylor Kinney — who has played Lieutenant Kelly Severide since Season 1 of <em>Chicago Fire </em>— took a temporary leave of absence in the middle of Season 11 to deal with a personal matter in January 2023, according to<a href="https://deadline.com/2023/01/taylor-kinney-leave-of-absence-chicago-fire-1235228974/" target="_blank"><em> Deadline</em></a>.</p><p>The magazine reported at the time that the <em>Chicago Fire</em> cast and crew were informed of Kinney’s leave on January 20, and that the second half of Season 11 was rewritten to accommodate for Kinney’s absence. Kinney’s last episode on <em>Chicago Fire</em> was Season 11, Episode 14, “Run Like Hell,” in which Severide joined his wife, Stella Kidd, at Molly’s Pub, where she asks him about arson Captain Tom Van Meter. In the next episode, Season 11, Episode 15, “Damage Control,” viewers learn that Severide left Chicago to train at “the best arson investigation training program in the world.”</p><p>A source confirmed to <a href="https://ew.com/tv/chicago-fire-season-11-finale-taylor-kinney-jesse-spencer/" target="_blank"><em>Entertainment Weekly</em></a> in March 2023 that Kinney would not come back to <em>Chicago Fire</em> for the Season 11 finale.As of writing this, Kinney hasn’t confirmed if he’s leaving or coming back for Season 12. However, fans believe Severide’s storyline at the end of <em>Chicago Fire</em> Season 11 could be setting up his exit. In the Season 11 finale, Epsiode 22, “Red Waterfall,” Kidd tells paramedics Violet Mikami and Sylvie Brett that she’s questioning her relationship with Severide after he left out details about his new job with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosions and his return to Chicago. The storyline made fans wonder if <em>Chicago Fire</em> was setting up Severide’s divorce from Kidd and joining the ATF full time as a way for him to leave the series and Firehouse 51.</p><p>“It feels like the writers are gonna write him off soon, which is kinda expected. I hope they don’t just say, ‘He’s deciding to stay on OFI in another state, so he’s divorcing Stella,’ because that’s be so out of character for Sev and very lazy on the writers part,” Reddit user @<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ChicagoFireNBC/comments/13lerfr/about_writing_off_severide/" target="_blank">PandoBear13</a> wrote in a thread in May 2023. “It’d be so infuriating if he pulled a Gabby Dawson on Stella. If they’re really writing him off permanently, they might as well go all out. I’d honestly rather they kill him off if he’s never coming back, rather than making him abandon his marriage, when it took tons of character development for him to settle down.”</p>

Image: Adrian S Burrows Sr/NBC via Getty Images

3/12

<p>Is <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/soaps/news/671214/sylvie-brett-leave-chicago-fire/" target="_blank">Sylvie Brett coming back for<em> Chicago Fire </em>Season 12</a>? The answer is unclear. Kara Kilmer — who has played paramedic Sylvie Brett since Season 3 of <em>Chicago Fire — </em>hasn’t confirmed if she’s leaving or coming back forSeason 12. However, fans believe her storyline at the end of <em>Chicago Fire</em> Season 11 could be setting up her exit.</p><p>In the Season 11 finale, Episode 22, “Red Watefall,” Brett and her boyfriend, Dylan, break up after she tells him that she wants to adopt a baby. When Brett’s ex-boyfriend, Matt Casey — who left <em>Chicago Fire</em> in Season 10 and is back in town to investigate a terrorist threat — learns that the baby’s biological mother agreed to Brett’s adoption, he shows up at her apartment. Casey tells Brett that he got her somthing a year and a half ago that he wants to give her before he returns to Portland, where he moved to in Season 10, Episode 5 “Two Hundreth,” to take care of Griffin and Ben Darden, the sons of late firefighter Andy Darden, who was killed in the line of duty in the <em>Chicago Fire</em> pilot.</p><p>“Sylvie Brett, we were meant to be. Will you make me and three kids the luckiest family in the world? Will you marry me?” Casey asks as the scene cuts to black on Brett’s face. The storyline made fans wonder if <em>Chicago Fire</em> was setting up Brett’s engagement to Casey, and her new family with him, which would include her adopted baby and Darden’s sons, as a way for her to leave the series and Firehouse 51 to move to Portland to be with him.</p><p>“I can’t be the only one who thinks she’s leaving. She’s been in the background the majority of the season and the writers have no idea what to do with her,” Reddit user @<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ChicagoFireNBC/comments/13azcny/is_brett_leaving/" target="_blank">taymay31</a> wrote in a thread in May 2023. “They haphazardly put her in a relationship with this boring guy Dylan where there is no chemistry or real romantic interest in him on her behalf (which was especially noticeable when Casey was there)”</p><p>Fans also believe Brett said yes to Casey’s proposal after Kilmer posted a behind-the-scenes video on Instagram in June 2023 of her and Jesse Spencer, who plays Casey, rehearsing the scene. After Casey’s proposal, someone on set joked for Brett to “say no” to Casey’s proposal, which fans believe mean she actually said yes.</p><p></p><p></p>

Image: NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

4/12

<p>Is <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/soaps/news/673061/mouch-die-chicago-fire/" target="_blank">Mouch coming back for <em>Chicago Fire </em>Season 12</a>? The answer is unclear. As of writing this, Christian Stolte — who has played Senior Firefighter Randall “Mouch” McHolland since Season 1 of <em>Chicago Fire</em> — hasn’t confirmed if he’s leaving or coming back for <em>Chicago Fire</em> Season 12. However, fans believe that his storyline at the end of Season 11 could be setting up his exit.</p><p>In the Season 11 finale, Episode 22, “Red Waterfall,” Firehouse 51 comes under fire from a sniper at a power plant. The firefighters stop the sniper, however, Mouch is critically injured from the gunfire and starts bleeding out and coding at the hospital when the episode ends.</p><p>The storyline made fans wonder if <em>Chicago Fire</em> was setting up Mouch’s death and exit from the series. Fans also believed that Stolte hinted at his exit from Chicago Fire in a cryptic <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CspY7EOLX-6/?hl=en" target="_blank">Instagram</a> post before the Season 11 finale. “Our 11th Season Finale airs tonight. No spoilers, I just want to say it’s been an extraordinary 11 years, and I am so very grateful for the experience. Truck on, Chi-Hards,” he captioned a photo of the <em>Chicago Fire</em> Season 11 poster in May 2023. Others, however, believed the post was a misdirection.</p><p>“No. Think about it. He would never comment that and make it sound like it was the end of Mouch if it was really the end of Mouch,” Instagram user @mcfinds1022 commented. “Which makes me think that he made it SOUND like it was the end of Mouch but it’s NOT the end of Mouch. Unless he knew we would think that. ..so then he… dammit.”</p>

Image: NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

5/12

<p>Is <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/soaps/news/667048/matt-casey-come-back-chicago-fire/" target="_blank">Matt Casey coming back for <em>Chicago Fire </em>Season 12</a>? The answer is unclear. Jesse Spencer — who played Captain Matthew Casey from Season to Season 10 of<em> Chicago Fire</em> — hasn’t confirmed if he’s coming back for <em>Chicago Fire</em> Season 12. However, fans believe that his storyline at the end of Season 11 could be setting up his return.</p><p>In the Season 11 finale, Episode 22, “Red Waterfall,” Casey, who made a guest appearance in the episode, proposes to his ex-girlriend, Sylvie Brett, after she breaks up with her boyfriend, Kyle, and learns that she’s adopting a baby. “Sylvie Brett, we were meant to be. Will you make me and three kids the luckiest family in the world? Will you marry me?” Casey asks as the scene cuts to black on Brett’s face.</p><p>While the storyline made fans wonder if <em>Chicago Fire</em> was setting up Brett leaving the series, others believe it could be setting up Casey’s return. Instead of Brett and her adopted baby moving to Portland to be with Casey — who relocated to Oregon in Season 10 to take care of Griffin and Ben Darden, the sons of late firefighter Andy Darden, who died in the <em>Chicago Fire</em> pilot — some fans believe that Casey and Brett’s engagement could have him move back to Chicago and return to <em>Chicago Fire</em> to be with Brett and help raise her baby. The question is what would Casey’s position be at Firehouse 51 if he returns. Some fans believe Caey could come back as Firehouse 51’s Batallion Chief — the position Chief Wallace Boden had until he was promoted to Deputy District Chief in Season 10 — after almost six years as a captain. Since Casey left, we have since a decrease of leadership and energy in the house. “If Casey’s gonna stay in Chicago for a while, there’s a position we need him in and that’s a BC position. He has been a Captain for I think 4 or 6 years, before he left to Portland. It seems reasonable to put him in a position like BC, if they manage to do so,” Reddit user @<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ChicagoFireNBC/comments/12cu42w/casey_for_battalion_chief/" target="_blank">itzredfox</a> wrote in a thread in April 2023.</p><p>In an interview with <a href="https://deadline.com/2023/04/nbc-chicago-fire-jesse-spencer-interview-season-11-spoilers-1235317832/" target="_blank"><em>Deadline</em></a> in May 2023, Spencer avoided a question about Casey coming back to Chicago Fire full-time. “I cannot… answer that question,” Spencer said. “The potential to come back would be awesome. I’m always open to that but you know, the ball isn’t really in my court. I always told [series co-creator] Derek Haas that if there were episodes that he thought would be appropriate for me to come back, then I’m totally open to that because I want to see the old gang and I love working there. But in terms of me coming back full time or something, I have no idea.”</p>

Image: Lori Allen/NBC via Getty Images

6/12

<p>Is Wallace Boden coming back for <em>Chicago Fire </em>Season 12? The answer is likely. Eamonn Walker — who has played Deputy District Chief Wallace Boden since Season 1 of <em>Chicago Fire</em> — hasn’t confirmed if he’s leaving or coming back for <em>Chicago Fire</em> Season 12. However, there are no major clues storyline-wise that he’s leaving.</p><p>The only minor issue is if Matt Casey, who left <em>Chicago Fire</em> in Season 10, comes back and becomes Firehouse 51’s Batallion Chief, the position held by Boden from Season 1 to 10 of <em>Chicago Fire</em> before he was promoted to Deputy District Chief. While it’s possible that Casey’s return could mean trouble for Boden, given that Batallion Chief and Deputy District Chief are two separate positions, it’s more likely that there’s room for both characters.</p>

Image: NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

7/12

<p>Is Christopher Herrmann coming back for <em>Chicago Fire</em> Season 12? The answer is likely. David Eigenberg — who has played Senior Firefighter Christopher Herrmann since Season 1 of Chicago Fire — hasn’t confirmed if he’s leaving or coming back for <em>Chicago Fire</em> Season 12. However, there are no major clues storyline-wise that he’s leaving.</p><p>The only minor issue is his wife Cindy Herrmann’s lung cancer diagnosis earlier in <em>Chicago Fire</em> Season 11. Cindy was diagnosed with lung cancer in Season 11, Episode 11, “Guy I Used to Know,” after suffering from a longterm sickness that only became worse. I’m a firefighter. I go into smoke and chemicals all day. I’m the one that’s supposed to get lung cancer. Not her,” Herrmann says when the doctor tells him and Cindy that she has lung cancer. While Cindy learns that she’s cancer-free in Season 11, Episode 17, “The First Symptom,” fans believed that her cancer storyline was setting up Herrmann leaving Chicago Fire and Firehouse 51 to spent more time with her and their five children — daughter Anabelle and sons Henry, Luke, Max and Kenny James — after her diagnosis put his overworking at Firehouse 51 into perspective.</p><p>“I have a feeling that this is going to be David Eigenberg’s last season,” <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ChicagoFireNBC/comments/11gvnkq/herrmann_season_prediction/" target="_blank">Reddit</a> user @adorable-spread-4462 wrote in a thread in March 2023. “They’ve set up the Cindy cancer storyline as a device for Herrmann’s exit from the firehouse. Cindy will succumb to her illness, Herrmann will be running into fires but this time it will be different. He’ll no longer be able to put his kids aside and risk his life, now as the sole parent responsible for them. If something happens to him, his 5 kids will be orphaned. Come the end of the season, he’ll make the tough decision to say goodbye to his 51 family, in sacrifice for his own. Here’s hoping my prediction is wrong though. Herrmann is the heart of this show.”</p><p>Other users speculated that Herrmann could leave Firehouse 51 but still remain on <em>Chicago Fire</em> in a reduced role through appearances at Molly’s, the bar he owns with Randall “Mouch” McHolland and Trudy Platt, which would give Eigenberg the option to return for future seasons. “IF it comes to that, I’d like that he leaves 51 but still stays in the show while just appearing at Molly’s. Then maybe … he’d go back when he’s ready,” a Reddit user wrote. Another Reddit user commented, “I think even if they wanted David to have a smaller role he would probably still stay at Molly’s.”</p><p>Eigenberg was also one of the few main cast members of <em>Chicago Fire</em> Season 11 to film two shows at the same time. Along with <em>Chicago Fire</em>, Eigenberg also stars as Steve Brady in HBO’s <em>Sex and the City</em> revival,<em> And Just Like That</em>. (Eigenberg also played Steve on Seasons 2 to 6 of<em> Sex and the City</em>, and the franchise’s two movies.) He was photographed on the set of <em>And Just Like That</em> Season 2 on Coney Island, New York, in February 2023, alongside Sarah Jessica Parker (who plays Carrie Bradshaw) and John Corbett (who plays Aidan Shaw.) <em>And Just Like That</em> films in New York City, while <em>Chicago Fire</em> films in Chicago.</p><p></p>

Image: Adrian S Burrows Sr/NBC via Getty Images

8/12

<p>Is Joe Cruz coming back for <em>Chicago Fire</em> Season 12? The answer is likely. Joe Minoso — who has played Firefighter Joe Cruz since Season 1 of Chicago Fire — hasn’t confirmed if he’s leaving or coming back for <em>Chicago Fire</em> Season 12. However, there are no major clues storyline-wise that he’s leaving.</p><p>In an interview with <a href="https://telltaletv.com/2021/09/joe-minoso-interview-chicago-fire-season-10-and-200th-episode/" target="_blank">Tell Tale TV</a> in 2021, Minoso opened up about how he’s glad Cruz hasn’t been killed off of <em>Chicago Fire</em> yet. “What’s great about it is they found something more interesting than just kind of, well, thankfully, killing me off — to explore as a character and as an actor. And I think we’re going to end up seeing a lot of leftover trauma for Cruz throughout the course of the season,” he said of Cruz’s Season 10 storyline.</p>

Image: NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

9/12

<p>Is Stella Kidd coming back for <em>Chicago Fire</em> Season 12? The answer is likely. Miranda Rae Mayo, who has played Lieutenant Stella Kidd since Season 4 of <em>Chicago Fire</em>, hasn’t confirmed if she’s leaving or coming back for <em>Chicago Fire</em> Season 12. However, there are no major clues storyline-wise that she’s leaving.</p><p>The only minor issue is her relationship with her husband, Lieutenant Kelly Severide, who left in <em>Chicago Fire</em> Season 11, Episode 14, “Run Like Hell,” to join an arson investigation training program and hasn’t come back since. (The actor who plays Severide, Taylor Kinney, took a leave of absence from <em>Chicago Fire</em> in January 2023 and hasn’t confirmed his return.) In the Season 11 finale, Epsiode 22, “Red Waterfall,” Kidd tells paramedics Violet Mikami and Sylvie Brett that she’s questioning her relationship with Severide after he left out details about his new job with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosions and his return to Chicago.</p><p>While the storyline made fans wonder if Chicago Fire was setting up Severide leaving <em>Chicago Fire</em> by joining the ATF full time and divorcing Kidd, others believe that the storyline opens the door for Kidd — who married Severide in Season 10 — to leave Firehouse 51 and <em>Chicago Fire</em> with him. Though anything is possible in the world of Dick Wolf, what’s more likely is <em>Chicago Fire</em> setting up Kidd coming back for Season 12 without Severide based on the clues of a future romance between her and Sam Carver.</p><p>“I don’t think she would cheat but I honestly think it really depends on the status of when or if Taylor Kinney returns and where the writers would go with that storyline. I mean, the writers planted the Carver crushing on Stella for a reason. They could go that way or completely change it. Who knows?” <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ChicagoFireNBC/comments/11dljhe/carver_and_stella/" target="_blank">Reddit</a> user @_wonder_girl_ wrote in a comment in February 2023.</p>

Image: Adrian S Burrows Sr/NBC via Getty Images

10/12

<p>Is Darren Ritter coming back for<em> Chicago Fire</em> Season 12? The answer is likely. Daniel Kyri — who has played Firefighter Candidate Darren Ritter since Season 7 of <em>Chicago Fire</em> — hasn’t confirme if he’s leaving or coming back for Chicago Fire Season 12. However, there are no major clues storyline-wise for him leaving.</p><p>In an interview with <a href="https://www.cbr.com/chicago-fire-daniel-kyri-interview/" target="_blank">CBR</a> in June 2023, Kyri opened up about where he would like to see Ritter’s storyline go in Season 12. ” I would say that the sort of inconsequential nature of Ritter’s sexuality has allowed audiences to get well acquainted with who he is in service. One of the key elements of a show like ours is, ‘Who are they when they show up to work?'” he said. “That being said, I think there has been a lot of expressing in terms of Ritter just being who he is and his presence in other people’s lives. And by the same token, there is an exploration that I feel we can lean into going forward with Ritter in his love life and seeing him in situations with Violet and Gallo.”</p><p>He continued, “Those are his best friends, and we know a lot about their love lives, and we don’t actually know very much about Ritter’s. I think it would be fun to play more with that, and I’m hopeful that is a bridge we’ll cross in the future.”</p>

Image: NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

11/12

<p>Is Blake Gallo coming back for <em>Chicago Fire</em> Season 12? The answer is likely. Alberto Rosende — who has played Firefighter Blake Gallo since Season 8 of <em>Chicago Fire</em> — hasn’t confirmed if he’s leaving or coming back for <em>Chicago Fire</em> Season 12. However, there are no major clues storyline-wise that he’s leaving.</p><p>In an interview with <a href="https://fangirlish.com/2022/09/21/chicago-fires-hanako-greensmith-daniel-kyri-and-alberto-rosende-tease-season-11/" target="_blank">Fangirlish</a> in 2022, Rosende revealed that, if he could have an actor come back full time for <em>Chicago Fire</em> Season 12, it would be Jesse Spencer, who played Captain Matt Casey from Season 1 to Season 10.</p><p>“We all love working with Jesse. It wouldn’t be Chicago Fire without him,” Rosende said. “He is Jesse Spencer. Casey’s presence is still [felt] at the firehouse when we start off.”</p>

Image: NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Im

12/12

<p>Is Violet Mikami coming back for <em>Chicago Fire</em> Season 12? The answer is likely. Hanako Greensmith, who has played paramedic Violet Mikami since Season 8 of <em>Chicago Fire</em>, hasn’t confirmed if she’s leaving or coming back for Season 12. However, there are no major clues storyline-wise that she’s leaving.</p><p>In an interview with <a href="https://fangirlish.com/2022/09/21/chicago-fires-hanako-greensmith-daniel-kyri-and-alberto-rosende-tease-season-11/" target="_blank">Fangirlish</a> in 2022, Greensmith opened up about how she hopes Mikami remains on <em>Chicago Fire</em>because of her strong friendship with the series other two female main characters: Sylvie Brett and Stella Kidd. “I think that’s something that’s very inspiring to Violet about these two women,” she said, adding that her character doesn’t shy away from “wanting to have a strong relationship with the women of the Firehouse.”</p>