Chicago Fire: Taylor Kinney Will Not Return This Season, but an Original Star Is Locked In for the Season Finale

Taylor Kinney’s leave of absence from Chicago Fire will continue into the next season.

News broke this week that Kinney will not be returning as Kelly Severide on Chicago Fire Season 11.

It was reported in January that the actor took time away from the show to deal with a personal matter.

However, the actor was on-screen as Severide until late February.

If you watch Chicago Fire online, you know the series addressed Severide’s exit in early March.

The NBC procedural revealed that Severide was in Alabama for an arson investigation training program.

The series brought back Jesse Spencer last month for an episode, and the series will do the same for the upcoming season finale.

Spencer officially withdrew as a series regular in October 2021.

“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,” Spencer told reporters during a Zoom press conference.

“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.”

“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.”

NBC officially picked up Chicago Fire for Season 12 earlier this year, but fresh episodes might not be available for a while.

Like many other scripted series, Chicago Fire will not have any episodes banked for next season amid the Writers Strike, meaning that no scripts can be written until the strike is over.

What are your thoughts on this news?

Are you happy Spencer is staging a comeback?