Charlie Barnett Reveals ‘Chicago Fire’ Return Ideas

Before Charlie Barnett starred as the thought-to-be-dead son of Peter Krause‘s Mike on Line of Fire, he was on another one of NBC’s hit dramas as firefighter Peter Mills. He exited Chicago Fire in Season 3, so it’s been over a decade since we’ve seen him. When we spoke with him about his latest role, we had to ask if we could ever see him back on the Dick Wolf drama — and he’s all for it!

“I don’t know if it will ever happen, but the wish and the prayer is still in my heart. I would be so happy to,” Barnett told TV Insider.

He’s still close to the cast and talks to them often. “I literally texted Randy Flagler two days ago. I talked to David Eigenberg five days ago because he was throwing a party for Joe [Miñoso]’s going away,” he shared. (He admitted he “was heartbroken to see him go.” Miñoso exits early in Season 14.) He’s even getting to know those who joined the show after he left. “Daniel Kyri and I have been hanging out because Daniel Kyri is in New York now. Daniel and I never got to be on the show together. It’s so awesome. We have a bond outside of the world, and I’m like, ‘Damn, I wish we could have been together.'”

Elizabeth Morris/NBC/Courtesy: Everett Collection

He continued, “I’m fully open to it. I go back to Chicago often. My husband’s a set designer. He was just there staying with Joe Miñoso at him and his wife’s house, and I came to stay there for a month while he was working. And I definitely went into the Chicago Fire studios to be like, ‘Hey y’all, I’m still alive.'”

Peter Mills is still alive, having left behind firefighting for the (other) family business — his dad died on the job — but at the time of his exit, Barnett wanted his character’s ending to be very different.

“I was super frustrated to leave the show. I’ve said that very publicly. I did not want to go. I wanted to stay there. I was very excited to be a part of that crew and that community. But when I left, when they wrote me out, I was even more frustrated that Peter Mills wasn’t going out in a blaze of glory. Literally, I wanted him to throw a baby out the window and burn in the… You know what I mean? I wanted it to be epic, like Peter Mills is a god,” he told us. “And they were like, ‘No, you’re just going to go to North Carolina and start working with your mom in a diner.’ It’s like, ‘OK.'”

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But he has a different perspective now. “I look at that, and I’m like, ‘Well, shoot, Peter Mills is still working at that diner, so when is he going to get the itch again?’ I’m imagining, and I want this validation of him being like, ‘I’m called again. This was my father’s…’ Peter Mills’ dad was lost in [a fire], and that’s why his mom is trying to pull him away. It’s a deeper connection for him,” Barnett explained. “It’s a deeper responsibility that he’s been away from for so long. I kind of envision him having, in North Carolina, already joined a force down there and he’s doing his own work, and somehow it’s going to bring him back up somehow.”

After all, as he said, “I’ve been working out. Let’s get this.”

Do you want to see Charlie Barnett back on Chicago Fire? If so, what would you want to see from Peter Mills? Let us know in the comments section below.

Line of Fire, Mondays, 10/9c, NBC

Chicago Fire, Wednesdays, 9/8c, NBC