The long wait for NBC’s One Chicago Wednesdays to return in the fall 2025 TV schedule is nearly over, and Chicago Med will be the first one back. Showrunner Allen MacDonald fortunately wasted no time in confirming when fans will find out the aftermath of the Season 10 finale cliffhanger with Hannah knocking on Archer’s door, but the Season 11 premiere isn’t the only episode to get hyped early on.
The medical drama will hit its milestone 200th episode just two weeks into the new season, and MacDonald previewed what fans can count on, including the return of the one and only Dr. Will Halstead.
Chicago Med’s 200th Episode
The One Chicago medical drama will air its 200th episode on Wednesday, October 8 in the usual 8 p.m. ET time slot on NBC Wednesdays (and then streaming the next day with a Peacock subscription). Called “A Game of Inches,” NBC’s logline for the episode reads:
Things get personal when Ripley and Archer butt heads over the treatment plans tied to an unusual case. Asher makes a surprising discovery with an expectant couple. A patient throws the hospital into chaos.
While not mentioned in the description, the episode will also be Nick Gehlfuss’ first appearance on Chicago Med since Will got a happy ending in the Season 8 finale. Allen MacDonald told CinemaBlend back in the spring that the Med team already had “plans” for the 200th episode” but “still need[ed] to work out the specifics.” Now, ahead of the Season 11 premiere, it appears that some of those specifics may have included Nick Gehlfuss’ return before he takes his place as a co-lead in an upcoming crime drama.
(Like Jesse Lee Soffer as Gehlfuss' former on-screen brother and his move to FBI: International, the Med alum is switching over to CBS to tackle a new role within Dick Wolf's entertainment world on CIA.)
What The Showrunner Told Us About Will's Return
Showrunner Allen MacDonald spoke with CinemaBlend and other outlets at NBC’s recent One Chicago press junket to shed light on what's to come at Gaffney Med this fall. Nick Gehlfuss’ return is the biggest casting news aside from Marlyne Barrett stepping away from playing Maggie, and MacDonald previewed what fans can expect with Will Halstead showing up in the Windy City again this fall:
When I started this job, I went back and I watched all the episodes, and I fell in love with Dr. Will Halstead very quickly. He was one of the characters I knew that I wanted to bring back. It took some time and some working out, but we have brought him back. It's for more than one episode. He is stopping by Gaffney to visit old friends with Owen, and that's all I'm comfortable saying right now. Aside from that, we will first see him in the 200th episode, and that will not be the last time we see him this season.
Season 10 was Allen MacDonald’s first as part of the Chicago Med team, and he told me last fall that the “first and foremost” way that he prepared to take the reins was “you sit down and you watch 176 episodes.” At the time, he cited his love of medical dramas going back to the days of St. Elsewhere and ER, both of which aired on NBC years before One Chicago kicked off.
When I asked this fall if he had anything big that he'd wanted to do for the 200th episode, he went back to those roots:
I just wanted to heighten the stakes a little bit more than usual, make it bigger in that way… I was a huge fan of St. Elsewhere, I was a huge fan of ER, and I've seen most of those shows from beginning to end. I just remember running for the TV Guide in the supermarket to see what was going to happen on St. Elsewhere that week, and if it said that a character was coming back from the past, that was even better. So I was just kind of servicing 14-year-old Allen's desire for an older character to come back on St. Elsewhere. I think that the fans really appreciate that.
Season 10 brought back some long-lost characters from earlier seasons, including Rachel DiPillo as Dr. Sarah Reese and Mekia Cox (now a star of The Rookie) as Robin Charles. It remains to be seen if Nick Gehlfuss will be the only former star to reprise a role for Season 11, but it certainly sounds like fans can look forward to a nice blast from the past with Will’s return, and he won't just be back for a single episode. MacDonald went on:
As a writer, I like seeing the OG characters coming back and catching up with each other. I really love seeing the OG characters come back and interact with the new characters like Lenox and Frost. I will tease that Frost is one of the first people that Will runs into when he comes into the hospital.
Since neither Frost nor Lenox had arrived at Gaffney before Will left to build his new life with Natalie and Owen in Seattle, I’m curious to see if they’ll have any idea who he is when he shows up in the hospital. A lot may depend on who is the very first person he encounters. A behind-the-scenes photo courtesy of Luke Mitchell reveals at least two doctors he’ll be interacting with:
Will’s time on Med overlapped with Archer’s, so they’ll be reuniting rather than meeting for the first time like Will and Ripley. As for other potential reunions, I’d certainly like to see his reaction to Hannah’s pregnancy, although we won’t know what’s happening on that front until the Season 11 premiere. It's also still not clear if there will be a time jump far enough ahead for Hannah to be showing any time soon, since the actress was not costumed in maternity scrubs in one behind-the-scenes video.
Chicago Med's Season 11 Premiere
The first episode of Season 11 is called “We All Fall Down,” and will quickly answer the question of why Hannah was knocking on Archer’s door and who the father of her baby is. Unfortunately for any fans who are more than ready for those answers, the logline from NBC doesn’t drop any big spoilers about Hannah’s bun in the oven. Here’s what to expect:
A family of victims from a house fire are rushed to Gaffney. Lenox fights to save two sisters injured in an all-night rave turned tragedy. Tensions mount between Goodwin and Abrams over difficult staffing changes.
While that doesn’t address the Season 10 finale cliffhanger, it should be interesting to see if Lenox’s approach to her work in the ED is any different after her devastating prion disease test results back in the spring. She proved to be good at compartmentalizing in Season 10, but her diagnosis was very big news to process, to say the least.
Victims from a house fire could theoretically mean a cameo from a Chicago Fire cast member or two, but there are plenty of firefighters and paramedics in NBC's Windy City without needing the Firehouse 51 heroes to turn up on Med. I'm excited to potentially see Goodwin sparring with Abrams, as the neurosurgeon is the kind of abrasive character who I love to watch on television but probably wouldn't exactly cherish as a coworker in real life.
Check out the One Chicago trailer for a peek at what's to come on Med:
Tune in to NBC on Wednesday, October 1 at 8 p.m. ET for the Season 11 premiere of Chicago Med, followed by the Season 14 premiere of Chicago Fire at 9 p.m. ET and Season 13 premiere of Chicago P.D. at 10 p.m. ET. All three premieres will be available streaming next day on Peacock, as per usual.
The 200th episode of Med will air just a week later, and we’ll have to wait and see if Nick Gehlfuss’ return as Will will be the only treat for longtime fans in that milestone. With young Owen returning as well, it'd be fun to get a surprise appearance from Torrey DeVitto as Natalie. It wouldn't be the first time that Med brought the actress back without hyping it weeks ahead of time!
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