‘Chicago Fire’: Jesse Spencer Returning as Casey in Season 11

Meredith Jacobs March 9, 2023, 8:29 pm

Jesse Spencer as Matthew Casey in Chicago Fire — Lori Allen/NBC

This might make missing Taylor Kinney as Lieutenant Kelly Severide on Chicago Fire a bit easier: A familiar face will be back.

Jesse Spencer will reprise his role as Matt Casey in Season 11 Episode 18, according to Variety. We’ll have to wait to find out what brings him back to Chicago — and likely leads to some sort of reunion for him and ex-girlfriend Sylvie Brett (Kara Killmer).

Chances are we won’t see Casey with his best friend, Severide. Kinney has taken a leave of absence, and it was in Episode 15, “Damage Control,” that we found out his character is out for the time being because a spot opened up in the best arson investigation program, via a conversation between Boden (Eamonn Walker) and OFI’s Van Meter (Tim Hopper). The expertise that Severide comes back with will help the entire department.

In fact, it was in that episode that Brett remarked that she felt for Severide’s wife, Lieutenant Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) since she knows that “long distance is no fun.” That was what led to her and Casey’s breakup in the Season 11 premiere; the writing had been on the wall in the Season 10 finale, which had seen Spencer return for a guest spot, with his character the best man in Severide and Kidd’s wedding. (He originally left in the 200th episode, after starring as Casey since the series premiere. To explain his absence, his character moved to Oregon to look after the sons of his best friend.)

Casey’s return is coming as Brett has started dating again, with her and Dylan (Christopher Allen) agreeing to see where things go in “Damage Control.” It was back in December that co-showrunner Andrea Newman told TV Insider about Brett, “there’s always the looming question of, was Casey the love of her life? And will that make it impossible to find that level of love again?”

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And when we wondered at the time if we could see Spencer again this season, Newman shared, “You know what’s funny? We were just talking about this, that Casey is such a presence on the show still. I think in the last few episodes, every one of ’em had a reference to him in some way or another, large and small. Jesse’s never far from our minds and Casey as a character’s never far from 51’s minds. We love him. We’ll have him back anytime.”

Well, now it sounds like Brett and Casey will have the chance to talk in-person about their relationship; she broke up with him over the phone in the Season 11 premiere. We’ll have to wait to see what that means for the future.

Chicago Fire, Wednesdays, 9/8c, NBC