Anything can happen in the One Chicago universe — work debacles, love triangles and, of course, the occasional killing off of a favorite couple. A character’s fate keeps the actors on their toes, including Chicago P.D. vets Marina Squerciati and Patrick Flueger.
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The costars, who have played Kim Burgess and Adam Ruzek, respectively, since the NBC show’s debut in 2014, joked that they always are thinking about the possibility.
“Every episode!” Squerciati exclusively told Us Weekly. “You just never know.”
“We always think so. Always,” Flueger chimed in. “Especially when we get toward episode 22, 23. It’s kind of like, ‘Oh, am I dying?’”
With the drama currently in production on its final season 9 episodes, Squerciati is crossing her fingers that they stay out of harm’s way — literally. “We’re on, like, 20 now!” she exclaimed.
Squerciati and Flueger have banked over 180 episodes on the series, starring alongside Jason Beghe, Jesse Lee Soffer, LaRoyce Hawkins, Amy Morton and Tracy Spiridakos. While some familiar faces have since exited the show — Jon Seda, Sophia Bush and Brian Geraghty — Elias Koteas‘ Olinsky was actually killed off at the end of season 5 when he was stabbed in prison and later died in the hospital.
“It just evolved from a storytelling perspective,” showrunner Rick Eid told Us at the time of the decision. “When we talked about everything, [Koteas] was really protective of his character and wanted me to be protective of his character and death and how he went out. He said that Olinsky wasn’t a sentimental character, he didn’t want his death to be overly sentimental in the show. He didn’t think it would be right. I promised him I would do our best to give Olinsky the send-off he deserved. That was something we collaborated with Elias on. He’s a man from the streets, kind of, and his character lived that way and died that way. It felt real, it felt honest. People don’t always die the way you want them to at the time you want them to. You don’t always get these moments of goodbyes. That felt like Alvin Olinsky.”
It’s been a long road since Olinsky’s goodbye, with a revolving door of newcomers that have since joined the franchise. Even the way the cast bonds has changed over the years.
“We don’t club as much as we did season 1!” Squerciati told Us, laughing.
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“I’ll say this,” Flueger added. “I feel like you hear people talk about, like, ‘Oh, we’re a family’ when they talk about their shows and stuff. And I don’t know that that’s always true. But with our specific show, with our crew, our cast, man, these are people that take care of each other, look out for each other. We’ve got a family situation going. … We’re very lucky.”
As for story line predictions if the show ever eventually came to an end?
“If the series finale was tomorrow, I think that they would have like … ” Squerciati said, before Flueger interjected: “Me, die!”
Chicago P.D. airs on NBC Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET.
