The summer months are usually pretty uneventful for fans of NBC’s One Chicago world as the wait continues for fall premieres, but there are reasons for viewers to keep their eyes peeled for news out of Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., and Chicago Med even during the summer of the 2025 TV schedule. While all three hit dramas were renewed, changes are on the way, and the recent news of another series regular being cut has me nervous for the medical drama in particular.
So, how worried do we need to be? I have four Med characters in particular whose futures seem most likely to be in jeopardy.
2025 One Chicago Cast Exits
cutting Daniel Kyri as Ritter and Jake Lockett as Carver ahead of Season 14. The Season 13 finale set up Carver’s reason to leave the Windy City, but the credits rolled without establishing why Ritter will be MIA from Firehouse 51 come fall. The first responder drama has cast On Call’s Brandon Larracuente as a new series regular.
Deadline) of potential One Chicago departures beyond Kyri and Ritter wouldn’t result in P.D. or Med losing anybody after all.
Alas, as of late June, that’s no longer the case. Toya Turner, the newest series regular to join Chicago P.D., will not return as Officer Kiana Cook for Season 13 in the fall. That doesn’t mean the Intelligence Unit will be down to just Burgess, Ruzek, Atwater, and Torres working under Voight, though, as another Deadline report indicates that the show is looking for a new series regular to play a female officer with the ATF Task Force, hailing from a military background.
With two cuts from Fire and now one cut from P.D., the question has to be asked: what about Chicago Med?
Who Is Confirmed For Chicago Med Season 11?
In early June, Deadline confirmed that all three One Chicago shows could guarantee their leads returning for the fall season. For Fire, that means Taylor Kinney (Kelly Severide), Miranda Rae May (Stella Kidd), and Dermot Mulroney (Chief Pascal). For P.D., Jason Beghe is sticking around as Voight. For Med, S. Epatha Merkerson (Sharon Goodwin) and Oliver Platt (Dr. Charles) are guaranteed to be back.
I was glad to get the confirmation about Merkerson and Platt, since Dr. Charles’ breakthrough with his daughter was such a showcase for the character that I’d wondered if it was in service of a grand swan song and exit. As for Goodwin, I would have hated to lose the character, but even I wouldn’t have been able to blame her if she decided it was time to retire. I didn’t want to see her leave – especially since Merkerson had me tearing up in the Med finale – but if you get stabbed in your own office, I think you earn a free pass to retire at will. (The finale is available streaming with a Peacock subscription.)
Considering that the finale ended on the pregnant Hannah (Jessy Schram) turning up on Archer’s (Steven Weber) doorstep with the cryptic greeting of “We need to talk,” I think it’s safe to say that Schram and Weber aren’t going anywhere before Season 11 arrives in the fall. That leaves us with four Med regulars whose futures seem less guaranteed in this uncertain time, so let’s look at who they are and who seems the most secure (and least) secure to return in Season 11.
Who Is Not Yet Confirmed
If you watched Season 10, you probably already have an idea of who I’m about to mention: Marlyne Barrett as Maggie Lockwood, Luke Mitchell as Mitch Ripley, Sarah Ramos as Caitlin Lenox, and Darren Barnet as John Frost. In order of longevity, let’s look at which character could reasonably be written out of Med based on how Season 10 ended.
Marlyne Barrett is the only main Med cast member other than Oliver Platt and S. Epatha Merkerson who has been on board from the very beginning, so it’s hard to imagine a future for the medical drama without Maggie as the ED’s charge nurse. She even had a key role in the finale when it came to two sick kids and one available pair of lungs, but there was no big cliffhanger involving Maggie that would require her back for the Season 11 premiere. I hate to even imagine the ED without Maggie, however, and there’s no other nurse main character who could step into her shoes.
Season 10 was Luke Mitchell’s second as Mitch Ripley, but he managed to get even messier in 2025 than he was at the end of Season 9 when he was facing trouble with the law. The finale back in May ended on a peaceful note for him, however, as the woman who he’d risked his own life to save dropped by for some flirting, which could have been to set up a Season 11 relationship storyline. He’s also the top candidate to be named as the father of Hannah’s baby, since I’m not convinced that her arrival on Archer’s door wasn’t a red herring. If he’s wrapped up in the pregnancy storyline, he’s surely here to stay.
Darren Barnett was one of two new series regulars to join Chicago Med in Season 10, and if Toya Turner being written out of Chicago P.D. is any indication, the approach to cutting One Chicago cast members might be that the last one in is the first one out. His big arc of the season was as neatly wrapped up as any fan could hope by the end of a finale, and I’d be inclined to name him as somebody who could be cut if not for Barnett joining P.D.’s Benjamin Levy Aguilar as well as Fire’s Hanako Greensmith and Jocelyn Hudon to represent One Chicago at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival earlier in June (via Instagram).
And that brings us to Sarah Ramos, whose Dr. Caitlin Lenox was causing waves in the ED from the start of Season 10 when Goodwin brought her in to share Chief duties with Archer. By the end of the season, Lenox was working as solo ED Chief and the friction with Archer was at a minimum. Unfortunately, the finale also revealed that she had tested positive for the deadly prion disease that runs in her family.
I’ve been looking forward to seeing how Lenox would handle that reveal while still working in the ED, since she’s not exactly known for opening up to coworkers. But in light of all the variables, Lenox might be the character who would most easily lift out.
Hopefully all of this speculation turns out to be unnecessary and Chicago Med doesn’t have to lose any characters at all like Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D., but only time will tell as summer hiatus continues. For now, keep a lookout for One Chicago developments, and feel free to revisit any favorite episodes streaming on Peacock as hiatus continues.