Gaffney is about to hit double digits! But what does Chicago Med Season 10 have in store for fans in the NBC drama’s milestone season? Well, there could an exit on the horizon that would provide a much-needed cast shakeup to the One Chicago series.
Who’s in the Chicago Med Season 10 cast?
No Chicago Med cast members have announced their exits at the time of writing, so all main cast members are expected to return for Season 10: S. Epatha Merkerson (Sharon Goodwin); Oliver Platt (Dr. Daniel Charles); Marlyne Barrett (Maggie Lockwood); Dominic Rains (Dr. Crockett Marcel); Steven Weber (Dr. Dean Archer); Jessy Schram (Dr. Hannah Asher); and Luke Mitchell (Dr. Mitchell Ripley.)
More: The most shocking Chicago Med exits over the years
One cast member seemingly confirmed to return is Mitchell, who told TVLine in an interview before the Season 9 finale about how fans’ perception of Ripley may change for the worse in Season 10 once they learn more about him. In the Season 9 finale, “I Think I Know You, But Do I Really?”, Pawel Wapniarski — the brother of Gaffney’s janitor Liliana — is beaten up, which leads the staff at the ED to question Ripley, given Powel’s lawsuit against the doctor and hospital.
“Ripley has to leave the hospital for an appointment, suddenly, and then he comes back, and then Pawel comes into the hospital [beaten up], and so, there’s a question about the timing of that,” Mitchell said. “There’s probably motive for Ripley to have some strong feelings towards Pawel. There’s question marks about Ripley’s past and past aggressive behavior and his impulse control disorder.”
Mitchell added that the situation “certainly makes some of the other main characters look at Ripley and question” the idea of “how well do we know Ripley, and what exactly is he capable of?” He continued. “The audience will also be faced with the question, is Ripley a good guy? What is Ripley capable of? That’s really a question of how much has he changed? Is he still this person from this troubled youth, with impulse control disorder? Or is he a new man?”
Mitchell also confirmed that Ripley’s true past will serve as the “cliffhanger” for Season 9 leading into Season 10. “That’s a little bit of a cliffhanger,” Mitchell said. “I think it’s going to be really interesting to see if Ripley did do it. But also, if he didn’t do it, how he’s going to feel about people accusing him of doing it? There’s going to be some serious trust issues going forward, one way or another.”A cast cast member fans speculated to be on the bubble to return was Merkerson — one of three remaining original cast members, along with Barrett and Platt — who sparked speculation she was leaving after Goodwin’s ex-husband, Bert, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. The diagnosis led fans to wonder whether she was resigning as the Chief of Patient and Medical Services at Gaffney Chicago Medical Center to take care of him. (Bert is also the father of Goodwin’s three children: Tara, David, and Michael.)
In the Season 9 finale, Goodwin agreed with her children to put Bert into a nursing home after a patient with dementia came to Gaffney Chicago Medical Center and reminded Goodwin of how much care Bert would actually need that she and her family could’ve give him.
The episode seemed to confirm that Goodwin will remain on Chicago Med for Season 10, despite speculation she was leaving. However, the main theory prior to the finale was that Goodwin would offer her job to Marcel as a way for him to still work at Gaffney but take a break from surgery after losing a close patient in the finale. With Marcel as the new Chief Administrator of Gaffney, the door would also open for another new doctor to join Chicago Med to replace Crockett as the ED’s trauma surgeon, especially after the exit of controversial recurring character Dr. Zola Ahmed (Sophia Ali) earlier in Season 9.
When is Chicago Med Season 10’s premiere date?
NBC hasn’t announced Chicago Med Season 10’s exact premiere date. However, the network confirmed that it will return in the fall of 2024 and keep its 8 to 9 p.m. time slot on Wednesday nights. Like NBC’s Chicago Wednesday schedule for the 2023-2024 season, Chicago Med will be followed by Chicago Fire in the 9 to 10 p.m. time slot and Chicago P.D. in the 10 to 11 p.m. time slot.
As for when Chicago Med‘s premiere date could be, we estimate that it will likely be on September 25, 2024, based on the premiere dates of past seasons of Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, and Chicago P.D., which have historically premiered on the last or second to last Wednesday in September.
How many episodes is Chicago Med Season 10?
NBC hasn’t confirmed the episode count for Chicago Med Season 10 yet, however, it’s expected that the series will return to its usual 18 to 22-episode count that it had in its first nine seasons — excluding Season 6, which had 16 episodes due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Season 9, which had 13 episodes due to the SAG-AFTRA and Writer’s Guild of America strikes that halted production for several months.
