Chicago P.D. was rocked to its core with the departure of Jesse Lee Soffer as Jay Halstead, who has been central to the series going back to the beginning. Season 10 is moving onwards with new cases and new stories, which – according to showrunner Gwen Sigan – will include “quite a bit” of two new characters. Fans have already met one of them, while the other still has yet to debut.
Showrunner Gwen Sigan spoke with CinemaBlend about Season 10 of Chicago P.D., including the theme of “savior” for the new batch of episodes. She mentioned that some recurring characters are coming in, then elaborated on whether that means the show will be more serialized moving forward. She shared:
It will probably be very similar to last season where we had Anna, and her storyline really became serialized, and I would say probably six episodes of it. We'll do a very similar thing this season. We've got some great standalones and great cases that we solve. and then we will have some overarching cases that go more than one episode. You'll get to meet Chief O'Neal, who's played by Michael Gaston. He will be coming back quite a bit in the first half of the season, as well as his son, who is played by Jefferson White. We're very excited to have both of them, and they will both be recurring through the first nine.
Although P.D. used the first two episodes of the fall to emotionally set the stage for why Halstead would decide to leave the Intelligence Unit (and Chicago) in Episode 3, Season 10 hasn’t yet introduced a storyline like Anna’s last season. The showrunner didn’t drop any details about the arc that will bring in Chief O’Neal’s son (played by Yellowstone’s Jefferson White), but Michael Gaston has appeared in some key episodes already. Chief O’Neal is the first prominent recurring character in a position of authority over Intelligence since Samantha Miller, played by Nicole Ari Parker across Seasons 8 and 9.
Gwen Sigan’s mention of Michael Gaston and Jefferson White recurring through the first nine episodes of Season 10 suggests that fans may not have too much longer to wait to meet Chief O’Neal’s son, as Halstead departed in Episode 3. The ninth episode of the season is also usually the midseason finale for Chicago P.D. When I noted to the showrunner that viewers have seen many different kinds of dynamics between the Intelligence Unit and their chiefs over the years, she continued:
Yes, this is a new take on it. I mean, it's been quite some time. We have Chief O'Neal as the new chief of Organized Crime, and he's coming in and we actually see that he likes Voight. He knows Voight and he has Voight's back, which is a dynamic we haven't seen in a bit. Of course, it will morph and it will grow the relationship, but it's a fun place to start for sure.
While Samantha Miller had Voight’s back to a certain extent, she also tended to stick to the straight and narrow more than he did, even though she would veer off the path when it came to her personal life becoming involved in cases. Chief O’Neal is a very different man from what we’ve seen of him so far, and more is clearly on the way after he accepted Halstead’s resignation. (Not that Halstead gave him much of a choice with his decision to return to the army!)
However Chicago P.D. incorporates these two new characters in what remains of the first nine episodes, it’s clear that the show is moving forward after saying goodbye to Jesse Lee Soffer’s character. Keep tuning in to NBC on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET to catch new episodes of Chicago P.D. Season 10, and stream new episodes next day with a Peacock subscription. P.D. closes out a full night of One Chicago action on Wednesdays, following Chicago Fire (which just delivered a major tragedy) at 9 p.m. and Chicago Med (which has already escalated some conflict in Season 8) at 8 p.m.
If you’re not ready to move on from Jay Halstead, however, you can look back at our picks for the best Upstead moments that led up to his departure. For some more viewing options in the not-too-distant future, you can also check out our 2022 TV premiere schedule.
