While the episodes will feature reunions for several pairings, it will also see the franchise’s main couples forced apart during the crisis. Ruzek and Kidd are trapped underground, with Burgess and Severide unable to reach their partners. Additionally, Platt is seen crashing in front of Mouch at the hospital. The personal stakes may further affect the team’s ability to do their jobs, as the One Chicago showrunners tease that the separations fuel a great story.
ScreenRant interviews Chicago Med showrunner Allen MacDonald, Chicago Fire showrunner Andrea Newman, and Chicago P.D. showrunner Gwen Sigan about the crossover’s main crisis, returning characters, and their favorite storylines.
Chicago Med Showrunner Allen MacDonald Wanted To Create A Satisfying Roller-Coaster Ride For Viewers
“I know that I was very interested in the character pairings that you can do on a crossover that are unexpected.”
ScreenRant: What was most important for you to accomplish with this crossover?
Allen MacDonald: A satisfying roller-coaster ride of action, suspense, and emotion. I think that we’re all pretty excited and happy with the results. We’ve obviously all seen it already, and it’s good stuff. I know that I was very interested in the character pairings that you can do on a crossover that are unexpected.
At the beginning of the Fire episode, Dr. Frost is spending a day, for the experience, shadowing 51, and he works with Novak and Violet, which is entertaining to see their dynamic. There are just a lot of examples of that in the crossover of characters that you don’t expect to interact.
How long has this been in the works?
Allen MacDonald: It was talked about pretty seriously as far back as March and April of 2024. It wasn’t really decided for sure until about June, but once we dove into it, it was a train that kept gaining speed and very quickly each show chose a writer to work on the crossover and those three writers were like a mini writers’ room.
They came up with the ideas that they pitched to Wolf Entertainment. Wolf Entertainment chose the ideas. The three showrunners, Andrea, Gwen, and myself—we had a lot of creative input, for sure, into the individual episodes, but those three writers were the frontline.
Will Goodwin be back in time for the crossover?
Allen MacDonald: Yes. She comes back, but because of her injuries from the fall finale and the surgery that happened in Episode 9, that Archer performed on her, she is coming back a little bit early, but when she hears what’s going on, and that they’re understaffed, she wants to be a part of the team.
How much will Sully’s death in Episode 10 affect Ripley in these episodes? Does the crossover stand apart, or is there a through line?
Allen MacDonald: It’s both. These three hours are their own contained standalone story, but we don’t ignore the fact that this is where these episodes fall in the chronology of the three shows. So, for instance, you’ll see, when Ripley and Hannah arrive, they’re dressed in black because they’ve just come from Sully’s funeral. Maggie asks Goodwin, “What are you doing here? You’re still recovering.” And she’s like, “You needed help. I’m here.” Things like that, we touch upon.
We’ve seen Lenox lead the ER and keep her cool during a massive crisis, but how will she react when she is tasked with saving Platt along with the numerous others affected by the gas explosion?
Allen MacDonald: Yes. The Platt storyline is, to me, one of the main emotional centerpieces of the whole crossover and Mouch’s reaction to it. And Lenox and Ripley are the ones that are working together to do what they can to save Trudy’s life because it’s not good.
And so it gives you a lot of opportunities for scenes that you weren’t expecting. There’s a very tense scene between Ripley and Mouch. There’s a very tense scene between Lenox and Hank Voight. I don’t want to go into what specifically the conversations are, but the reward of the crossover is seeing those moments.
Was there a character from either P.D. or Fire that you were excited to have back in the Med universe?
Allen MacDonald: I love everybody on the One Chicago franchise, but I have a soft spot for Mouch and Andrea Newman is aware of this, so she wasn’t surprised when I asked, after the crossover, if I could have Mouch in Episode 15, which is a big episode for Ripley. I’m talking now about Chicago Med, specifically, but the dynamic that develops between Ripley and Mouch continues when we see Mouch on Med again in Episode 15.
Steven Weber compared the crossover to Avengers: Endgame. How would you describe it?
Allen MacDonald: I would say that Steven Weber is much better at soundbites than I am. You’re not the first to ask that. I think the Avengers comparison, I hadn’t thought of it, but it is actually perfect and there are some hero shots in the crossover—the characters all walking together from the different shows. In fact, one of them is at the end of the Med hour. But it is exciting to see all our heroes working together.
