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Chicago Fire made another cast change with Dermot Mulroney‘s Chief Dom Pascal stepping back from Firehouse 51 after an offscreen hiatus.
The Wednesday, March 11, episode of the hit NBC series showed Pascal having his position revoked after he previously disobeyed a federal agent’s order to stand down while collecting evidence at a house fire. Pascal was arrested, but despite the federal charges against him being dropped, his position was still in jeopardy.
Pascal ultimately confirmed to Firehouse 51 that he was told to vacate the position effective immediately. Amid the big professional change, Pascal considered retiring from firefighting but then shared that a former colleague in Phoenix offered to connect him with a firehouse in Arizona. It remained unclear what choice Pascal would make about his future.
“He’s been on the ropes,” Chicago Fire showrunner Andrea Newman told NBC Insider. “[The arrest] puts him in a situation, it’s kind of a journey for him from the beginning, where he really wasn’t connected to 51 as closely as the chiefs obviously we’ve seen in the past, like Boden.”
Newman continued: “So he makes the ultimate sacrifice for his team, for all the teams really in this episode, and it sends him in a totally different and new direction at the end here. And he’s gonna have to figure out if he’s going to fight and claw to get back to 51, or if he’s now going to be on a new path altogether.”
Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) later learned that Pascal left his office — and a copy of the captain handbook — to him as a way of passing on the position of interim commanding officer. The onscreen shakeup comes after news broke earlier this year that Mulroney’s Pascal would be absent from the rest of season 14.
Deadline reported in January that a story line that requires him to be off screen will be the way NBC writes the character off the show — for now. Mulroney was still expected to appear in the One Chicago crossover before Rob Morgan takes over his position at Firehouse 51.
Mulroney does have the chance to return at the end of the season. Morgan, meanwhile, is stepping in as Battalion Chief Hopkins. According to an official character description, Morgan’s character, Hopkins, “has a complicated history overseeing several Chicago firehouses and is quick to assert authority over his new colleagues.”
NBC’s president of program planning Jeff Bader has previously addressed the way Chicago Fire, Chicago Med and Chicago P.D. have often lost fan-favorite characters.
“Cast comes in, cast goes out,” Bader told TVLine in July 2024. “It’s interesting, because every year there are cast changes, and every year someone asks the same question about what’s going on within the One Chicago universe. But [those shows] just keep going on.”
Bader noted that each of the Chicago shows have continued to find success, adding, “We’re thrilled with how the Chicagos do on Wednesday. We have no plans on changing anything on that night.”
Chicago Fire airs on NBC Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
