‘Chicago Fire’: Taylor Kinney Reportedly Taking Leave of Absence in Season 11
Squad 3 is going to be without its lieutenant for an unspecified amount of time on Chicago Fire.
Taylor Kinney, who has starred as Lieutenant Kelly Severide since the series premiere, has reportedly taken “a leave of absence to deal with a personal matter,” according to Deadline. News of the leave was delivered to the cast and crew on January 20. No other details have been revealed.
According to the report, his absence will likely be addressed in-show, with rewrites to any scripts that were completed already.
So how could Chicago Fire explain why Kinney’s Severide isn’t seen for however long it is? And will we see Cruz (Joe Minoso) just filling in for him or will they have to bring in someone new to help out on Squad in some capacity? The latest episode offered one possibility, with Severide and his wife, Lieutenant Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo), clashing on a call and even led to the question of whether one of them should switch shifts so as to avoid that happening in the future. However, they’d resolved the problem by episode’s end (and even had fun bringing work home, in the form of Kidd wearing his jacket). That doesn’t mean it can’t come up again.
Depending on how long he’d be MIA onscreen, Severide could always be said to be recovering from an on-the-job injury sustained during a shift we don’t see. Or, perhaps the easiest explanation, could be that he’s working with OFI (Office of Fire Investigation) on a case or cases that require his full attention — with Boden’s (Eamonn Walker) OK — and we only hear about it rather than see it onscreen.
The news comes after Chicago Fire‘s promo for the next episode shows Severide during one of paramedics Brett (Kara Killmer) and Violet’s (Hanako Greensmith) calls. Watch that below.
Chicago Fire, Wednesdays, 9/8c, NBC
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OH God I hope it isn't anything serious. Please come back Taylor!
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C
We need him in the show, he is very handsome and exactly a wonderful Actor...🤥🤥🤥
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B
Yes, he IS HANDSOME, but not such a "wonderful actor." Rather wooden and non-expressive although he has improved since Season 1
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C
The older shows from Wolf Entertainment seem to be going through growing pains. The older employees are beginning to be replaced by younger employees which is paid less and makes tv viewing harder for the older generation that are still alive. We really need some entertainment on tv and not just news tv. The news is depressing. I can only watch so much talk tv. I want entertainment.
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In the case of Fire they haven’t replaced any older actors with new younger ones. He is taking a leave of absence not quitting. Unlike Jesse Spencer he decided to leave the show. Shows that have been on for many years need to bring in new actors in order tell new stories and younger actors fill the bill for the longevity of a show. Boden, Mouch, Severide, Herman, Cruz , Capp and Tony are all OG’s so the bulk of the original cast are still there. With the exception of Otis and Shay’s deaths and Monica Raymond and Jesse Spencer leaving the original cast still exists. So hopefully Taylor is well and will come back soon.
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G
It was bad enough losing Casey on the show! If Severide is gone, the show will lose viewers!
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The show will lose me, that's for sure
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O
He is missed and I wish him all the love and joy in the world. He’s a great actor and the real him comes through in his role.
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O
I miss Severide, 🙏 hurry back!
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C
This surprised me, but I'm happy to hear it's just a leave of absence. It reminds me of when Kara Killmer went on maternity leave last season, hence the Emma storyline. I wish Taylor the best, and I hope everything's okay with him.
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It's not that simple. Scripts are written way ahead of time. They go through multiple rewrites and edits, before they're submitted to the network. And there's a deadline for that, so the episode can air on schedule. If the network doesn't approve a script, that script needs to be rewritten and resubmitted, before they can even start filming. This delays production, which pushes back the airdate. Once that happens, it throws off production for the following episodes.
The cast finally gets the script a few days before they start filming. At that point, they're almost finished filming the previous episode, during which the director completed all pre-production work. That's why they say they don't know much more than fans, when they're asked about spoilers. Because, they don't. They only film 2-3 episodes ahead of what's actually airing.
Since cast and crew were just informed on Friday, production wasn't prepared for this. Scripts will have to be tweaked, since they were expecting Taylor to film episodes that have already been written and prepped. They need time to rewrite those scripts, especially if they include major Severide storylines. Those storylines will now have to be adjusted to set up his absence.
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I don't get it. Why not show all the pre recorded episodes as is? Then introduce some reason he's not coming back (like working on a long distance case with OFI)
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