Despite fan speculation, Chicago Fire star Taylor Kinney is not going to appear in the season 11 finale. As Deadline previously reported exclusively, the fan favorite who plays Kelly Severide, has been on a leave of absence since January, dealing with a personal matter. Chicago Fire alum Jesse Spencer, who starred as Matt Casey alongside Kinney for 10 seasons, returned earlier this season and will guest star again in the season finale.
Kinney has starred as the firefighter on the Dick Wolf procedural since its launch in 2012. Spencer originally left in Chicago Fire’s 200th episode, air date in October 2021. When Spencer left the series, his character was headed to Oregon to take care of his late best friend Andy Darden’s sons. He was also trying a long-distance relationship with love interest Sylvie Brett (Kara Kilmer).
In the April episode, Casey — now leading a top-secret task force — returned home to pick a local representative — someone he trusts — to hold things down in Chicago.
“I always told [series co-creator] Derek Haas that if there were episodes that he thought would be appropriate for me to come back, then I’m totally open to that because I want to see the old gang and I love working there,” Spencer told Deadline at the time.
Executive producers of Chicago Fire are Dick Wolf, Derek Haas, Andrea Newman, Michael Gilvary, Reza Tabrizi, Arthur Forney and Peter Jankowski.
Chicago Fire is produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, in association with Wolf Entertainment.
Chicago Fire‘s Season 11 finale airs on Wednesday, May 24.
Nellie Andreeva contributed to this report.
