‘Chicago Med’ Bosses Tease Season 9 Time Jump, Love Connections & Juicy Drama Ahead

Rosy Cordero
·6 min read
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It’s been a long wait for NBC’s Chicago Med to return with its 9th Season but with the premiere less than a week away (January 17), Deadline has some juicy nuggets to tease about the show’s return.

In the Season 8 finale, the medical drama said goodbye to Day 1-er Dr. Will Halstead (Nick Gehlfuss) who handed in his resignation after finding himself more and more unsettled with the new changes implemented at Gaffney Chicago Medical Center following Jack Dayton’s purchase of the hospital. His main concern was Dayton’s insistence on using the O.R. 2.0. even after a machine error caused the death of a patient and could’ve also claimed Dayton’s life.

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Dayton’s live surgery for investors cost him nearly all his money after showing the high-tech machine wasn’t ready for showtime. So to stay afloat financially, Dayton sells the hospital.

Season 9 picks up 6 months after the events of the prior season finale and will consist of 13 episodes.

Deadline caught up with Chicago Med executive producers Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider this morning to set things up after a long break due to the dual WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.

(l-r) Jessy Schram as Dr. Hannah Asher, Marlyne Barrett as Maggie Lockwood
(l-r) Jessy Schram as Dr. Hannah Asher, Marlyne Barrett as Maggie Lockwood

DEADLINE: It’s been so long since we last caught up with the folks at Gaffney. What have they been up to all this time?

DIANE FROLOV: Well, quite a bit. The hospital was sold to a conglomerate business consortium, so that’s been taken care of. Their personal lives, particularly Goodwin’s [S. Epatha Merkerson]…

ANDY SCHNEIDER: …we find there’s something new in her personal life. Oh, I wanted to add one thing. Since it’s been so long since we have been in production, we decided to make that part of a timeline. We didn’t think it was realistic to jump back right after the finale. So this premiere takes place six months after the finale.

DEADLINE: Oh, so that means Archer’s (Steven Weber) son Sean (Luigi Sottile) would be able to move forward with the transplant if he’s been sober within that time.

FROLOV & SCHNEIDER: Exactly.

DEADLINE: How will the new board affect our characters and the hospital?

SCHNEIDER: Well, they’re business people. The board wants to turn this into a profit-making enterprise but that will be a source of some conflict for Goodwin and the doctors. But we don’t deal with that in the premiere episode. All we learn is that they have new owners and that they are business people.

FROLOV: They will also discover there’s a conflict of interest on the part of a board member.

I don’t think this is a spoiler but in one of the episodes, we’ll see that Crockett [Dominic Rains] is asked to join the new board. And that is something that boards do, have a physician representing the doctors. So he will be involved a little bit more with what’s going on with the administration as well.

DEADLINE: Does this new role change him?

FROLOV: Well, he’ll have new responsibilities. So yeah, he will become a little bit of a different character. It’s a new role for him. He’s also been working on the 2.0 and trying to fix it so it can be used.

DEADLINE: Maggie (Marlyne Barrett) had some personal drama last season. Will that continue?

FROLOV: There’s also a lot going on in Maggie’s (Marlyne Barrett) marriage that will be a surprise.

SCHNEIDER: Right, there’s some fallout from what happened last season.

DEADLINE: I don’t envy Maggie who is caught between these two great men; one from her past and the other from her present. Could a divorce be in her future?

SCHNEIDER: Well, that’s a sad thought, isn’t it?

FROLOV: Yeah, but a lot went on with Ben (Charles Malik).

DEADLINE: Is there a possibility she’d reunite with her longtime love?

SCHNEIDER: We don’t want to spoil anything but life is gonna take a big turn for Maggie Lockwood.

(l-r) Oliver Platt as Dr. Daniel Charles, Alet Taylor as Liliana Wapniarski
(l-r) Oliver Platt as Dr. Daniel Charles, Alet Taylor as Liliana Wapniarski

DEADLINE: Viewers are very invested in the Dr. Charles (Oliver Platt) and Liliana’s (Alet Taylor) relationship. After that heart-to-heart in the Season 8 finale, where are they now?

FROLOV: We won’t see Liliana in the first episode but she did move in with him. They’re a couple. We love Alet who plays Liliana, she’s so terrific. The two of them just work; they have great chemistry.

SCHNEIDER: But down the line, her brother will be a problem.

FROLOV: He’s a bit of a pariah. He’s got his own problems that cloud his judgment.

DEADLINE: This is a shorter season but could wedding bells be in their future?

SCHNEIDER: You know what? Hope is always there.

DEADLINE: The big news of the season is the addition of Luke Mitchell as Dr. Mitch Ripley. What can you tease about the character?

FROLOV: There will be a lot of conflict between him and Charles.

SCHNEIDER: It turns out Ripley has a history with Charles that we’ll find out more about in the premiere episode. We won’t tip it just yet.

DEADLINE: Do you have any plans for her personal life? Is anyone lined up on his dance card?

FROLOV & SCHNEIDER: Sure.

Deadline: Please tell us who.

SCHNEIDER: Well, look at who we have available.

DEADLINE: I need to do some math but that leads me to Hannah (Jessy Schram) but I want her to be with Weber.

SCHNEIDER: Well, that’s a possibility but he’s a very handsome guy in the E.D. We’re going to mix things up.

Luke Mitchell as Dr. Mitch Ripley
Luke Mitchell as Dr. Mitch Ripley

DEADLINE: Going back to Charles for a bit, he’s this sort of Yoda-type character on Chicago Med so it will be great to learn more about his past which is a bit messy.

FROLOV: And he’s going to have to deal with that past and some mistakes he made.

SCHNEIDER: He’s got a bit of soul-searching to do. He will continue to be the great and wise psychiatrist, but he’ll have some soul-searching to do.

DEADLINE: Archer was put through the wringer last season with his health struggles. Now that his son is working through his addiction issues, could there be some healing taking place between them?

FROLOV: Absolutely. That’s absolutely what is happening. They have a great scene in that first episode. Archer too, has to evolve. He has to accept his son’s gift, and that’s very hard for him. But it does bring them closer together.

DEADLINE: Archer though is a rule-breaker. Could we see trouble catch up to him?

SCHNEIDER: We don’t have any plans immediately to have trouble catching up with him.

FROLOV: I see him having to manage a new resident and she causes a lot of trouble. So he’s going to be dealing with other people causing trouble in the E.D.

SCHNEIDER: He’s the Chief of the E.D. now so it’s a funny position for him to be in now, but it’s so different.

DEADLINE: Would you say we’re missing out on a lot due to the shorter season?

SCHNEIDER: Well, we have 9 episodes [left]. [Laughs] We have to come to our season arcs more quickly because it’s a shortened season. We’re not so much missing out on anything; it’s that we’re speeding up the process of getting to what our finale will be.

DEADLINE: Do you already know how the season will end?

SCHNEIDER: Rosy, we’re not there yet.

FROLOV: We had to jump right into this and we didn’t have the lead-up to it that we normally do because of the strikes. So we’re working it out.

DEADLINE: It must be a very exciting time in the writers’ room right now.

FROLOV: It is because we’re watching what is happening with the characters as we’re going along. You know, the writers have come back like all of us, very excited to be back at work. It’s a whole different energy. Usually, at this time of year, everyone is tired because we’d have been working since May or July, depending.

SCHNEIDER: Right now, nobody is tired. We’re currently shooting episode four and prepping five. Everyone is working on double expressos right now.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

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