Thanked for the series at the end of season 3, the actor who played Peter Mills, the flagship character of the first seasons, returned to the choice of the writers to make his character leave. A decision that affected him a lot.
While Chicago Fire is due to return in May for an eleventh season on NBC in the United States, one of the former cast members, Charlie Barnett, confided in his departure from the series on fire fighters during season 3, which aired in 2014.
If he has since been able to bounce back by chaining roles in series like You, Arrow, Ordinary Joe or even the hit series Russian Doll on Netflix, the actor who played the role of Peter Mills, a firefighter turned rescuer , reveals to have been very affected by his departure from the series, created by by Michael Brandt and Derek Hass.
“I was really sad to be fired” he confides to the site Digital Spy. “It broke me for quite a while.“According to the website TVLinethe decision of the producer of the series to leave Peter Mills at the end of season 3 was not linked to the actor, but only motivated by scriptwriting imperatives.
“When we write the series… We remain vigilant enough to ensure that the story is fresh. Especially with a series based on the relationships between the characters, you never want it to stagnate, and sometimes you have to be pragmatic…“At the end of season 3, “it was time to shake things up“, says Matt Olmstead, because the departure of Mills would affect many characters and reinvigorate the plot of the series.
Looking back, Charlie Barnett considers that this departure, as painful as it was, was actually a blessing for him. “You never really notice that in life, in general. You never see that the bad times can turn into the good ones. I think things would be really different if we realized that at the time.“
Season 7 of Chicago Fire, unpublished in France, is currently broadcast on CStar every Sunday evening, while TF1 rebroadcasts the series debut in the second half of the evening on Wednesdays.