Chicago P.D. went through a massive change early on in Season 10 with the resignation and then departure of Jay Halstead in an episode that turned out to be Jesse Lee Soffer’s last as his longtime character… so far. The actor returned to his old One Chicago stomping grounds to direct an episode, despite dealing with a “tricky” situation. Whether or not Soffer ever returns in front of the camera remains to be seen, but he spoke with CinemaBlend about being asked to come back as Halstead.
Jesse Lee Soffer spoke with CinemaBlend about his directing debut, which came with some perks from playing Halstead for so long. His character has still been important to the show since he left the Windy City early in Season 10, as Upton has had to deal with her husband’s absence (complete with some heartbreaking performances from Tracy Spiridakos). Naturally, the question on a lot of minds has been whether or not he could reprise his role later in Season 10 or beyond, assuming that P.D. is renewed.
When I spoke with the actor-turned-director, I asked for his thoughts on being frequently asked whether or not he’d come back as Jay Halstead, and Jesse Lee Soffer shared:
It's fine. I get it. I'm very grateful that people love the Halstead character so much, and I'm grateful to what we built, as far as the producers and the writers and myself with who that guy was. It’s nice knowing that he's still so loved in the universe, but it's not up to me whether or not he comes back. So, you know, I can't help anybody there. [laughs] I guess in part it is up to me to some degree. I would have some say in the matter, but it's not on the board right now.
After sharing lots of love with fans immediately following his final episode, Jesse Lee Soffer expressed his gratitude that fans would like to see Halstead return to Chicago P.D., which tracks after he spent a decade and more than 200 episodes in front of the camera across One Chicago (including Chicago Fire and Chicago Med as well as P.D.). Unfortunately, a return as “not on the board right now,” but fans can take solace in seeing that he only has good things to say about viewers wanting to see more of Halstead. And it’s still not impossible!
Of course, fans have had to adjust their feelings about Halstead in light of how the character decided to continue his stint in the army without so much as telling Upton, let alone asking her! Without Soffer on screen, fans can only gauge what’s up with Upstead based on Tracy Spiridakos’ performances. And who couldn’t possibly sympathize with Upton based on what she has gone through since Halstead left?
Jesse Lee Soffer also took the opportunity to weigh in on how Halstead’s absence is being handled in Season 10 and fans potentially feeling conflicted about it. He said:
It's not up to me how that character is written, or what the writers have to do with the other characters that are still on the show to make their storylines work, given his absence, and our show is a really dark and gritty show. That's kind of the universe that it lives in, so of course the storylines are going to be dark and gritty, revolving around anything, let alone a major character's absence. So, you know, I think they're doing what they have to do to service the other characters.
While it may be hard to watch Upton go through the loss of her husband (not helped by her getting information from his commanding officer rather than Halstead himself), Chicago P.D. has to write towards her storyline rather than his, with Tracy Spiridakos remaining a series regular. Plus, as I argued in the aftermath of Halstead’s farewell episode, there wasn’t really a good scenario for how P.D. could say goodbye to him.
With so many ties to characters across One Chicago (and if P.D. wasn’t going to go the SVU route of simply keeping Rollins off screen despite losing the star), Halstead was going to have to leave the Windy City if he wasn’t going to be killed off. “Dark and gritty” were the most obvious options for Chicago P.D… unfortunately for poor Upton (and fans)!
See if Chicago P.D. has more updates on what Halstead is up to off screen with new episodes on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC, and revisit earlier episodes of the series streaming with a Peacock Premium subscription.
