Chicago Med, Fire, and P.D.’s showrunners chatted with NBC Insider about what it took to pull-off their biggest crossover yet.
The three-part One Chicago crossover event with Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, and Chicago P.D. was unlike anything the Chihards have ever seen before, and the One Chicago showrunners couldn’t wait to see how the action all came together.
The excitement was at an all-time high, not just because fans always enjoy an epic three-parter, but also thanks to the fact that P.D. icons Detectives Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer) and Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) both returned to Chicago to join forces with the Windy City heroes. A tragedy on a commercial flight launched a frenzied hunt to locate the criminal harboring a deadly nerve agent. With several members of the Firehouse 51 family landing in the hospital and being treated by the Gaffney doctors, Halstead and FBI Special Agent Upton’s help proved paramount in saving the day just in time.
“A lot of what we did in this crossover, we’ve never done before, and we’re always looking for new things to explore, new incidents, and we’ve never done anything with a plane,” P.D. showrunner Gwen Sigan told NBC Insider. “For us, that’s new and really exciting, something we’ve talked about in the past, but never tried to tackle… [the writers are] really good at coming up with the twists and turns that make these [crossover episodes] so great, and bringing in the personal stuff that makes it so great, too, the real character-driven stuff.”
NBC Insider chatted with Med showrunner Allen MacDonald, Fire showrunner Andrea Newman, and P.D.’s Sigan about the whirlwind crossover episode and the epic reunion P.D. fans have long been waiting for.
Upstead’s triumphant return
Who doesn’t love a One Chicago family reunion? After Halstead’s exit in P.D. Season 10 and Upton handing in her badge in P.D. Season 11, it’s been years since Chihards have seen the (albeit former) P.D. power couple, so their return couldn’t have come at a more thrilling time. And getting them to come back together? P.D. showrunner Sigan felt it couldn’t be a more exciting crossover.
“It was so exciting having them come back,” she said. “I mean, we’ve wanted to do it for a while, and I think because this was such an event, it makes sense to bring them back for this. And that we can bring them back at the same time, which was important.”
Adding to the suspense of the three-hour episode was Upton and Halstead’s lingering tension following their off-screen divorce on the NBC nail-biter. After years of rooting for the longtime partners’ happily-ever-after, it was heartbreaking to see them part ways without much closure.
“They left the show in different years, so they didn’t get to leave as partners,” Sigan shared. “So, to our show, that was the most exciting piece of it was that they’re going to come back, and they can have some closure as a partnership, and sort of leave together and get those scenes that we weren’t able to do years ago when they both left. So that was very fun.”
Of course, it wasn’t going to be an easy reunion between the former couple; Upton understandably held some resentment for Halstead, but had moved on and built her own life. Meanwhile, Halstead apologized for abandoning Upton the way he did, bringing a long-awaited closure for the couple.
“We established pretty early in this thing that they’ve both gone their separate ways, but they’re doing really well in their respective careers,” Sigan explained. “We’ve got Halstead, who’s working narcotics interdiction with the US Army, and then Hailey, who we revealed is working with the FBI. So, they’ve grown a lot in the years apart, and it was fun to see them come back together and be a bit different now.”
Even better, Chihards were treated to not one episode of Upton and Halstead’s tension, but an emotional three-parter with plenty of tension and heartwarming moments.
“The nice thing about having the three hours of story, you see them sort of at odds in pieces of this story, and then you also see how easy it is for them to be partners again and to have that kinship that we always saw,” Sigan said. “And so, by the end of this thing, it brings up quite a lot from their past, and they’re able to at least sort out a little bit, talk about it, which they never quite got to do on screen.”
The past came back to haunt the Windy City icons on One Chicago’s latest
Halstead and Upton weren’t the only ones faced with a troubling past during the latest One Chicago crossover event. Chief Dom Pascal (Dermot Mulroney) and Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) were shocked to discover that the flight incident and planned attack were connected to a famous Chicago fire they served 20 years prior. After a young boy lost his entire family in the tragedy, he grew up and planned a horrific attack against Pascal, Voight, and hundreds of Chicago first responders in the crosshairs.
Med’s showrunner MacDonald shared, “One of the things that kind of started early on with the development of this crossover is the idea that there would be an older character from each of the three shows, and that they would have this event, this common shared history of a tragedy that happened long ago that would be haunting the present.”
It was an emotional rollercoaster for Pascal and Voight to navigate, but it all came together in a heroic display of sacrifice and dedication.
“It’s insanity, and it’s a season-long process,” Fire’s showrunner Newman explained. “It really is. It starts pretty much from the jump, when we start talking about the possibilities. And these writers did incredible work together, but we all end up in there all the time. It’s really an incredible feat to pull off.”
Newman added, “It is impossible the amount of people that are managed… I mean, everybody goes all out. I will say everybody’s just full pedal to the metal for these things. And, we end up at the end of it just being in awe of the crews and the cast that we have and the way they all come together… It’s a lot of time, and a lot of work, and it’s a lot of fun too.”
