Jesse Spencer Exits ‘Chicago Fire’ — But For How Long?
Never say never!
All signs pointed to the fact that Jesse Spencer would be exiting Chicago Fire with the 200th episode when his character realized he needed to move to Oregon to take care of Andy Darden’s children.
That fact was cemented with Chicago Fire Season 10 Episode 5, “Two Hundred,” when he made an emotional exit that seemed, while not necessarily final, very concrete for the time being.
“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 TV Line during a press conference. “I called 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.”
That said, throughout Spencer’s final episode, Casey declares that he’ll only be gone for about three years — that he’s staying long enough to get both boys off to college. That then he’ll be back.
So that door is open for his return, and it sounds like the actor is open to that at some point.
“There is the potential for me to come back. I still am in Chicago right now. I’m not running off to Los Angeles or anything, although I might escape for a little bit of the winter,” Spencer said. “My home here with my wife is in Chicago, and so I’m still going to be here, but I’m just stepping back for right now.”
Derek Haas also stated during that same press conference that “This is a three-year commitment that Casey is making, but hopefully, we’ll see him before those three years are done.”
For the purposes of the story, the episode does have Casey and Brett agreeing to stay together and manage a long-distance relationship.
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Chicago Fire airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on NBC.
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Ashley Bissette Sumerel
Ashley Bissette Sumerel is a television and film critic living in Wilmington, North Carolina. She is editor-in-chief of Tell-Tale TV as well as Eulalie Magazine. Ashley has also written for outlets such as Rolling Stone, Paste Magazine, and Insider. Ashley has been a member of the Critics Choice Association since 2017 and is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic. In addition to her work as an editor and critic, Ashley teaches Entertainment Journalism, Composition, and Literature at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.