Who’s Left Chicago Fire? Look Back at the Most Dramatic Exits Amid Taylor Kinney’s Mysterious Absence

All the Characters Who’ve Left Chicago Fire Over the Years
With more than a decade on television, Chicago Fire has had dozens of characters pass through the doors of Firehouse 51 over the years. With so many cast members who have come and gone, it can be hard to keep track of who’s left and who’s still fighting fires in the Windy City. So who’s left Chicago Fire? We break down the most shocking exits ahead.

Chicago Fire is NBC’s drama series following the personal and professional lives of firefighters, paramedics and other emergency responders 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 Law & Order and FBI franchises — is the first show in NBC’s One Chicago franchise, which also includes Chicago P.D. and Chicago Med.

In an interview with TV Line in 2016, executive producer Michael Brandt explained why it’s important for Chicago Fire to write off characters and keep the cast fresh. “M*A*S*H comes to mind in terms of great shows where they survived and actually flourished with changes [among] the lead actors and characters,” he said at the time. “There is an evolution to the show. It has to go on. So yeah, you do have to freshen things up with your characters from time to time. Every TV show does it, because you kind of have to. You can’t keep telling the same stories over and over. The hardest thing that we do as writers and producers on TV is make changes to the cast. It’s such a family situation in Chicago. But unfortunately, it’s a necessary evil.”So who’s left Chicago Fire over the years? Read on for the most dramatic exits we’re still not over.

Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) — Seasons 1 – Present

Taylor Kinney has starred as Lieutenant Kelly Severide — a firefighter and lieutenant at Firehouse 51 — since Season 1 of Chicago Fire. He temporarily left in Season 11, Episode 15, “Run Like Hell,” after Captain Tom Van Meter — a commander and arson investigator for the Chicago Fire Department’s Office of Fire Investigation, who Severide has worked with — tells Chief Wallace Boden that Severide left Chicago to train at “the best arson investigation training program in the world.” Van Meter also tells Boden that the program was a last-minute opportunity that was too big for Severide to pass up on, which is why Severide didn’t have enough time to tell the members of Firehouse 51 himself.

A source close to the production on Chicago Fire told Deadline in January 2023, that Kinney was taking a “leave of absence” from Chicago Fire to deal with a “personal matter.” The magazine also reported at the time that the cast and crew of Chicago Fire were informed of Kinney’s leave on January 20, 2023, and that future scripts were rewritten to accommodate for Kinney’s absence.

Matt Casey (Jesse Spencer) — Seasons 1 – 10
Jesse Spencer starred as Captain Matthew Casey — a firefighter and captain at Firehouse 51 — from Seasons 1 to 10 of Chicago Fire. He left in Season 10, Episode 5, “Two Hundred,” which seem Casey leave Firehouse 51 and move to Oregon after he’s contacted by Griffin Darden — the son of Andy Darden, a firefighter killed in Chicago Fire’s pilot — who asks him to help him and his brother. Casey, who became a father figure to the brothers after their father’s death, decides to move to Oregon to become their legal guardian to prevent them from being separated and sent to foster care while their mother, Heather, is in prison.

In a press call in 2021, Spencer explained that he decided to leave Chicago Fire to take care of his family. He welcomed his first child with his wife, Kali Woodruff Carr, in April 2022. “Coming up to the 200th, I called [showrunner Derek Haas] and broke the news that I thought it was time to leave the show. He agreed we should at least get Casey to 200 episodes.,” he said. “It was a difficult decision because I’ve loved this show from the start, but there’s other things that I would love to do in the future and there’s some family that I need to take care of. 18 years is a long time. That’s a long stretch.” Spencer continued, “It was a difficult decision, and I hate to leave the show because I do love it, but when the time comes, the time comes.”

Haas told reporters that he “of course wanted to talk Jesse into staying” but was thankful that Spencer agreed to film the first five episodes of Chicago Fire season 10 to say goodbye to Casey. “That let us bring back a storyline from season one that I know Jesse was excited about when we pitched it to him, to bring back the Darden boys and really tie in the pilot to Jesse’s leaving,” Haas said.

Spencer also confirmed he left Chicago Fire to spend more time with his family later on the press call. “As a lead, you don’t want to leave a show. But I wanted to leave the show. It was time for me,” Spencer said, calling his exit “bitter swee

t.” “It was OK [saying goodbye] because 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 for the winter. … My home here with my wife is in Chicago, and I’m still going to be here, I’m just stepping back for right now.” He continued, “It’s been an amazing run. I couldn’t have asked for anything more. I’ll miss it. I’m stepping away but I’ll be back.”

Otis Zvonecek (Yuri Sardarov) — Season 1 – 8

Yuri Sardarov starred as Brian “Otis” Zvonecek — a firefighter at Firehouse 51 and the driver of Truck 81 — from Seasons 1 to 8 of Chicago Fire. He left in Season 8, Episode 1, “Sacred Ground,” after Otis was killed in the line of duty in a fire at a mattress factory, which was later named the Arnow Mattress Fire. Otis died of an explosion when a boiler blew up and he was hit with the internal backdraft. As Otis was hit, he slammed shut a steel door, which saved the rest of the Firehouse 51 crew and the factory workers.

In an interview with TV Line in 2019, showrunner Derek Haas explained that Chicago Fire decided to kill off Otis to reinforce the stakes of being a firefighter. “I didn’t know what we were going to do when I wrote the ending to the season. Then when I was [on] hiatus, I was talking to Andrea Newman and Michael Gilvary, my two head writers — we were really just catching up over the course of the break — and as we were talking, we just said, ‘We gotta put some teeth back into the show, and we gotta show that the dangers are real,’” he said. “I called Dick Wolf and I said, ‘We’re thinking about killing off Otis,’ and I probably talked to him and [Wolf Entertainment President and executive producer] Peter Jankowski for an hour. Dick, who draws on more experience than anyone in the world, said, ‘As long as you’re honest with the storytelling, the audience will go with you.’ So that was it.”

Haas also explained why Chicago Fire chose Otis out of all the characters to kill off. “We didn’t want it to just be Otis that there was a ramification to, and so we had Brett’s arm fractured,” he said. “When you think of threats on the show, a character saying she’s going to get married and move away, our audience is used to us then saying, ‘Oh no, we resolved that quickly,’ and we wanted to show, ‘No, we’re doing what we said we were going to do. She is getting married and moving away.’”

He continued, “When we decided it was going to be Otis, there was some talk about, ‘Do we make it Ritter?’ but it felt like that was almost not as serious. It almost wouldn’t be the same situation or effect, because he was such a new character that the audience would think, ‘Oh, we were just doing that intentionally from the beginning,’ because it wouldn’t have had the stakes that it would have if it were a core cast member. And then we just decided it would be Otis because he lives with Cruz and Brett, and he’s on Casey’s truck, and he’s in Boden’s house, and he’s best friends with Mouch, and owns a bar with Herrmann… There are a million feelings that everybody has from a guy who’s been on the show from almost the first scene, and actually, a guy I’ve known since prior to Chicago Fire.”

Haas, who worked on a movie with Sardarov before Chicago Fire, also revealed to TV Line how Sardarov reacted when he learned Otis was being killed off. “We did a movie together that I wrote and directed that he was in,” he said. “From a personal standpoint, it’s really difficult as a showrunner to tell an actor, ‘Hey, this is what we’re thinking,’ when you not only know them as a really great actor, but also as just a good person and friend.” He continued, “But I called Yuri and told him what we were going to do, and I’ve never had a call as professional and as gracious, and I think, in the back of my head, that I know why, which is that he’s a writer himself, and he understands that you, as a writer, have to surprise the audience and give them something that they weren’t expecting. Plus, he’s at the beginning of his career, and this isn’t his swan song by any stretch.”

Gabby Dawson (Monica Raymund) — Seasons 1 – 6

Monica Raymund starred as Gabriela “Gabby” Dawson — a paramedic and later firefighter at Firehouse 51 — from Seasons 1 to 6 of Chicago Fire. She left in Season 6, Episode 23, “The Grand Gesture” when she decided to divorce her husband, Captain Matthew Casey, and leave Firehouse 51 to take a job as a paramedic in Puerto Rico to aid in hurricane relief.

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune in 2018, Raymund explained that she left Chicago Fire to move back to Los Angeles and pursue other opportunities as an actor. “I’m not sure the exact moment when it happened, but I knew that my six-year contract was coming to an end and I felt like I was hungry to explore a different role, a different story,” she said. “I wanted to explore a different world.