Earlier this season, Chicago Med quietly said goodbye (for now) to longtime cast member Marlyne Barrett, and unfortunately, it’s highly unlikely that we’ll see her character, charge nurse Maggie Lockwood, any time soon.
As reported in August 2025, Barrett stepped away from the NBC drama ahead of the current 11th season for personal reasons. Maggie’s absence was briefly addressed in the season opener, when viewers discovered that she no longer works at the hospital, but the details of what happened to the character were left vague. Dr. Charles casually asked Sharon Goodwin if she’d talked to Maggie since she left the hospital, to which Sharon simply replied, “Not a peep.”
At the time when Barrett’s exit was first announced, the hope was that she would return at some point, so Maggie’s departure was meant to be mysterious, with the intention that it would be resolved upon her return to the show. “I think that because Marlyne chose to step away for personal reasons, and we are hoping to welcome her back when she’s ready to come back, we will make reference to the fact that Maggie is gone,” showrunner Allen MacDonald explained to Soaps.com last fall, “but I probably, up front, won’t be delving too deeply into why or where she went, because that would be stuff I would want to use when she does return.”
But Med is now more than halfway through its season, and Maggie is no closer to stepping back into the halls of Gaffney Chicago Medical Center, MacDonald recently revealed to Matt’s Inside Line. “We had hoped to bring Maggie back, but for a variety of reasons, the stars did not align,” MacDonald shared. “So although this could always change on a dime, we have no current plans for Maggie to return.”
In the meantime, the series has been teasing another potential exit, with Dr. Daniel Charles (played by original cast member Oliver Platt) first contemplating retirement and now considering a new job offer at a university.
Chicago Med airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on NBC.