NBC announced over the weekend that the network has high hopes for another Chicago Fire. The potential new spinoff is going to be set at a Chicago Hospital and will feature a staff of doctors, nurses and hospital administrators living and working in the city. Now, Yaya DaCosta, the actress behind Lifetime’s recent Whitney Houston-based original movie, has signed on as a lead on the possible spinoff, which is rolling with the title Chicago Medical.
On Tuesday, we learned that DaCosta will play a nurse in Chicago Medical named Maggie Seaver. She’ll have ties to Chicago Fire actor Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney), and will be a love interest for the character. This makes sense, considering Chicago Medical hasn’t been picked up as a pilot or as a series. Instead, the characters that will be leads on the potential spinoff will appear during an episode of Chicago Fire later this season. Deadline describes Maggie Seaver as a woman Severide has known since high school. Hopefully, she’ll be a legitimate romantic partner, as Severide had a pretty crazy dating story earlier this season when he randomly got hitched one weekend in Vegas. Needless to say, that didn’t last.
The “event” episode will bring the Chicago Med team into the same emergency situation as the Fire team, and while we don’t know a ton about the spinoff’s players (including who else will star), we do know details about a few of the characters that will be involved in the special Fire episode. The planted episode will at least feature two brand new firemen, a head of pediatrics, an admissions nurse, another female pediatric, and a doctor and possible administrator with specialization in psychiatry. Additionally, when the spinoff was first announced, DaCosta’s character was named either Emily Sexton or Kayla Goodwin, depending on reports. With DaCosta’s casting, it looks like the name has been changed once more.
Production on the Chicago Fire episode that will introduce Chicago Med characters is expected to begin on February 23, so that doesn’t leave much time for executive producers Derek Haas, Michael Brandt, Matt Olmstead and Dick Wolf to get the cast together. You can bet your bottom dollar that we’ll be hearing a slew of new names added over the next couple of weeks.
Obviously, the Chicago Medical spinoff is not guaranteed to go to series, but there are a lot of compelling reasons to sign on for a third show in the franchise. NBC has had success with Chicago Fire and its spinoff, Chicago P.D., which was introduced in the same fashion Chicago Med will be. And all ER comparisons aside (ER was also set in Chicago and had an ensemble cast), there is a lack of good medical dramas on TV right now—especially since Red Band Society won’t be back for a second season--and NBC doesn’t have any other ensemble medical drama on the air.
Reportedly, the planted episode will air as part of Episode 19, so we should get an idea of what the spinoff will look like sooner rather than later. From what we know, are you excited for a third series in the franchise, or do you hope the medical drama does not become a reality?
