Two of the Chicago dramas are seeing some significant turnover. Jon Seda, who has been with Chicago P.D. since it began, will be exiting the series while Colin Donnell and Norma Kuhling are saying goodbye to Chicago Med.
Seda, who plays Detective Antonio Dawson, was one of the original stars of Chicago P.D. He started off as a recurring on the mothership Chicago Fire before he and Jason Beghe were spun off to anchor spinoff Chicago P.D. as the leads. Seda left Chicago P.D. midway through Season 4 to join new legal drama spinoff Chicago Justice. He returned to Chicago P.D. at the beginning of Season 5 as a series regular following the cancellation of Chicago Justice after one season. He has been part of a number of crossovers among the Chicago shows.
According to reports, the cast departures stem from creative reasons related to the characters’ story evolution. In the case of Seda, there was a feeling that his character had played out. That being said, Seda is very well liked by the producers, and it is possible for him to wind up in another Dick Wolf show down the road. Seda had this to say about his time on the series in the following tweet:
It’s been an honor portraying Det. Antonio Dawson in the #OneChicago world. To my cast #Family, I’ll always treasure the time and stories we shared. To all you #chihards out there, THANK YOU for being the best of fans! We’ll Always have CHICAGO 👊🏻 pic.twitter.com/pJRwphtMAu
— Jon Seda (@JonSeda) April 20, 2019
On the Chicago Med side of things, Donnell has played the series regular character of Dr. Connor Rhodes, a Cardiothoracic- and Trauma Surgery Attending (he began as a Trauma Surgery Fellow) at Gaffney Chicago Medical Center on Chicago Med since the series’ launch in 2015. He also made guest appearances as the character in a total of four episodes in Chicago P.D.(seasons 3 and 4) and four episodes of Chicago Fire (seasons 4, 6 and 7). Non-Chicago Med fans may remember the actor from his one season stint on Arrow playing Tommy Merlyn. Donnell addressed his departure with the following tweet:
Sorry to say that this is true.
I love my #ChicagoMed #OneChicago family dearly.
And a special thank you to all the fans that have made these last four seasons so amazing.https://t.co/1TjIHVrbDr
— COLIN DONNELL (@colindonnell) April 19, 2019
The other Chicago Med departure, Norma Kuhling, first appeared as Dr. Ava Bekker in the season 2 finale of Chicago Med as a recurring. She was upped to a series regular at the start of Season 3. Kuhling took to Instagram to confirm the news:
