CHICAGO PD: Sophia Bush exits

ONE CHICAGO fans have been dealt with yet another blow this week with the news that Chicago P.D. star Sophia Bush, who plays Detective Erin Lindsay has left the series. According to reports by Deadline the actress will not be returning as a series regular when the show comes back for Season Five this fall. Whether she comes back as a guest star to send Lindsay off properly is unknown.

When Chicago P.D. wrapped up its fourth season last week, we saw Lindsay looking out into the Chicago evening skyline and ignoring a phone call from on/off partner Jay Halstead, after she was offered a job with the FBI in New York. While viewers were left uncertain as to whether she was taking the gig, it looks like the answer is now a lot more clear and with the knowledge that Halstead was intending to propose, fans’ hearts just broke that little bit more.

As well as the question of is this the end of Linstead’s relationship, fans are left wondering who is going to fill Lindsay’s spot upstairs in Intelligence. In Season Four, we saw Burgess finally be promoted after Antonio Dawson moved over to the ASA on Chicago Justice but now with this week’s news that the newest member of the ONE CHICAGO franchise won’t be returning for another season, is this the opening they need to bring Antonio Dawson and actor Jon Seda back? Or will Tracy Spiridakos’s Detective Hailey Upton be made a permanent fixture on the show – she might have been brought in to temporarily fill Burgess’s spot while she was on furlough looking after her sister and niece (a storyline written to accommodate star Marina Squerciati’s maternity leave), but it’d be nice to maintain the amount of girl power up in Intelligence and on the show.

Chicago P.D. has already lost its showrunner Matt Olmstead and Executive Producer/Director Mark Tinker next season, while writer Derek Haas will focus his attentions on Chicago Fire after years of writing for the two shows; so it’s certainly going to be interesting to see how all these changes affect the series next season.

Chicago P.D. returns this fall, Wednesdays at 10/9c on NBC.