Didn’t see that one coming! At the end of Chicago Fire season 6, Monica Raymund announced that she would not be returning to the series, which ended with her character taking a job in Puerto Rico. So, it was no surprise when the premiere picked up and Matt Casey (Jesse Spencer) was struggling to live life without his wife. However, no one expected Raymund to return in not one, but two scenes.
First, Casey and Dawson FaceTimed each other and she couldn’t stop smiling, explaining to her husband how much she loved it there. While he debated going to visit her, the episode ended with him returning home to find her at their apartment. She told him she was offered a permeant position in Puerto Rico and invited him to join her. He couldn’t, of course, but didn’t get mad — instead, as Casey does, he told her how proud he was of her for finding what she loved to do and helping others.
Us Weekly caught up with cocreator Derek Haas following the premiere to find out just how he convinced her to return.
“There was literal begging involved,” Haas told Us Weekly before explaining that he just knew they needed her back after last season’s ending.
“Last year, Monica let me know that she wasn’t going to come back. I was in denial,” he said. “So she was like, ‘Derek, I love this character and have done this character for six years, but I have bigger, other ambitions.’ So, I was like, ‘OK, s—t.’ I wrote the ending of last season, and I will admit it was not the perfect … it wasn’t what I wanted to do in my head. We had planned pretty good in Puerto Rico, I just thought Casey would go get her and bring her back. Whatever.”
He continued: “This summer, I saw her a couple of times. The first time, she was like, ‘Derek, I’m not doing it.’ Then the second time I was like, ‘Monica, please. I’m asking for one — literally one day, one episode. Can you come back?’ I think she took pity on me and came back and did it. I thought it turned out beautifully. I wish there was more of an open door for her to come back.”
Raymund will be directing an episode of Law & Order: SVU and is taking on new projects but the door is always open if she does decide to return. However, for now, Casey is solo. Whether he’s single or not — that’s another question.
“We’re gonna play it out. So, there will be some new people coming into the firehouse,” Haas teased. ”It’s going to be one of those things where Casey is gonna flat out say, like, ‘I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know if it’s separation or heading to divorce.’ I mean, we’re gonna play the real world.”
Chicago Fire airs on NBC Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
