Norma Kuhling on leaving Chicago Med, Ava Bekker role
Losing Norma comes as a fairly enormous surprise for many reasons. For starters, she’s still reasonably new compared to some other actors, having just joined Chicago Med formally as a series regular at the start of season 3. Also, just mere days ago it seemed as though she was going to be coming back. Just take a look at some of what she wrote in an Instagram post from earlier this week here.
Now, however, we know that we’re at the end of Kuhling’s time on the show, and a new Instagram post (see below) is her thanking the fans, cast and crew for making this a wonderful, memorable experience. It’s a very classy message in the midst of what feels like a sudden departure. The reports that we have right now claim that the exit of Kuhling alongside her co-star Colin Donnell and Chicago PD star Jon Seda is due to creative reasons. Basically, there may have been some behind-the-scenes disagreements about the direction of various stories, but without knowing specifics it’s hard to really dive too much into any of it.
If you missed our video reaction to these exits last night, check out some of what we’ve got right now below! On the other side of seeing this, remember to subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube and also check out our full playlist so you don’t miss any other One Chicago scoop.
Will there be a way to properly write these characters out?
This is the question that we’re wondering the most at present, mostly because viewers put a lot of time into these stories and the best thing that you can hope for in turn is at least some element of closure. At least for most departures within the One Chicago world, we’ve had a chance to see a little bit of that. Take, for example, Monica Raymund coming back at the start of this Chicago Fire season in order to offer up a better farewell for Gabby Dawson — or, Rachel DiPillo at least giving us some sort of curtain call for Sarah Reese a little bit earlier this season. Even when Sophia Bush left Chicago PD as Erin Lindsay, the writers had enough foresight to properly explain her exit from the show. It was a difficult transition, but Chicago PD survived. That’s why we also think that Med and PD will survive now, even if it’s difficult since viewers do get so invested in some of these people over time.
Chicago Med returns with all-new episodes on Wednesday alongside the other One Chicago shows — for some additional insight on what’s coming, check out the link here.
Are you still surprised by some of these exits, and how do you think we’re going to see these characters written out of the shows? Be sure to share right away in the comments, and check back soon for some other updates. (Photo: NBC.)