Chicago PD season 5: Dick Wolf (finally) addresses Sophia Bush exit

It may have taken a rather lengthy amount of time, but Dick Wolf is finally discussing Sophia Bush leaving Chicago PD. With that being said, the prominent super-producer isn’t saying a whole lot as to the reason why.

Speaking to reporters (via THR) at the TCA Summer Press Tour today, Wolf kept the message short and sweet: “She wanted to leave.” That’s been sort of the boilerplate response from the beginning with the series’ star. If her contract was like many others for broadcast TV actors, she would’ve had another couple years on her initial contract; yet, why force someone to stay if they don’t want to be there? Bush hasn’t commented herself on her departure from the show, though she has quietly this summer removed a mention of her playing Erin Lindsay from her social-media channels. She remains vocal and active on her accounts but has not addressed her exit. There’s no reason to push for further information from her; if she wants to discuss it, she has the freedom to do so. Otherwise, the only thing to do is move on and see what lies ahead with the show.

Wolf also made it clear that he was confident Bush’s exit would not rattle the show all that much, saying “I don’t think it will have any effect at all.” That’s a lot of confidence, but we’ll wait until we see the ratings to echo that. The one thing that Chicago PD has going for it is that the strength of the series lies mostly in its ensemble and the quality of the writing. With that still present, the series has a shot. It’s already made move to fill the void left by Bush, promoting Revolution alum Tracy Spiridakos to series regular in the role of Hayley Upton. This was a great character in the time she was around last season; let’s just hope that there are some more interesting things for her to do that aren’t just carbon-copies of Lindsay stories. The same goes for hoping she doesn’t get paired up with Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer), who was considering a proposal to Lindsay during the finale.

There was talk when the news of Bush’s exit first broke of her coming back to wrap up her storyline, but Wolf did not comment on that today. Maybe it’ll be a pleasant surprise on the show itself; personally, it’d be a disappointment to not get it, given that we had felt the finale storyline with Lindsay was mostly just a setup for a separate arc that would eventually lead to her returning to Intelligence. At the time, the last thing on our mind was that she would actually leave the show for good.

What do you think: Should there be another Sophia Bush – Chicago PD storyline to wrap things up? Share in the comments!

Also, click here in the event you want some more news on Chicago Fire, and to be specific, our hopes for one of Erin’s exes in Kelly Severide. He’s the focus of the latest edition of our character spotlight series. (Photo: NBC.)