Chicago Med interview: EPs on season 9 story, crossover potential

Next week Chicago Med is going to be back with new episodes on Wednesday night — are you ready for what lies ahead? There are so many big stories to tell across the board here, whether it be for new arrivals or people we’ve had around for a good while.

One thing we often love to do leading into these seasons is check in with the executive producers behind the scenes. With that, why not hear a little more of what showrunners Andrew Schneider and Diane Frolov have to say? They know this world inside and out, and this time around they face the challenge of evolving the series after so much time away.

Matt & Jess – Coming into this season, how much did you both know in regards to potential episode counts? Has that led to more challenges when it comes to plotting out the story?

Schneider – The studio and the network were constantly figuring out how many episodes were possible as the [SAG-AFTRA] strike progressed. At one point, it was like ‘we’ll do 15.’ Then, it was like ‘we’ll do 13, but if this goes on another month, we may not have a season at all.’ So we’re very grateful to at least have the thirteen episodes.

Frolov – It did impact the storytelling. We decided that we would start six months later as opposed to picking up where we left off.

Does that time jump enable everything to reset a little bit after Dr. Halstead’s exit?

Frolov – Exactly. They’ve had a chance to do that and process that lost. Also, the hospital has been bought. We don’t pick up with it in crisis.

Schneider – Goodwin has her job.

Frolov – Maggie is there, she didn’t leave.

Schneider – Everybody’s relationships have progressed. Will’s departure is not an open wound. They’ve had time to process it. Everyone has done some moving on, both in their personal and professional lives.

For instance, with Crockett, he is determined to put up guardrails to use OR 2.0, which we will get into in the first episode. It’s the first time it is being used on a live patient instead of a simulation. Later in the season, we’ll see that he has been invited to join the board, which sometimes happens as a physician is brought on to represent the concerns of the doctors.

Charles and Liliana this season are living together, Goodwin has started a romantic relationship, Maggie will find out her marriage is not doing well. Here’s another issue — having it now been six months, Sean is now able to donate his kidney to his father.

I know both this show, let alone a lot of the greater Dick Wolf world, has undergone a lot of changes. What is the transition like when you lose a main character [like Will] and you have to both balance out stories and bring in someone new?

Frolov – When we bring in a new character, we tend to think about how they are going to interact the other characters. What are they going to bring, and what kinds of conflict will that cause in our world? This time, we brought in a character Ripley (Luke Mitchell), and he’s going to have conflict with Charles. They have a past.

Schneider – It goes back to when [Ripley] was an adolescent in Chicago.

Frolov – We’ve never had that. We’ll be unpeeling that relationship and what happened.

Schneider – We didn’t want to replace Halstead. We wanted to bring in a character with a new dynamic and a set of issues.

Frolov – And it would also give us more story with Charles, as well.

Beyond just Dr. Charles, how is Ripley going to fit in to the rest of the hospital?

Schneider – The only person who knows about his past is Charles. To everyone else, he’s this wonderful new doctor — charming, smart, great doctor. They find him a little bit mysterious, but to them, he presents as a different sort of character.

Frolov – What Archer says in the premiere is that he got a full ride of Columbia, he’s a really smart guy.

Schneider – He’s got great references! That’s what Archer knows and in the premiere, he’ll test Ripley and see what a good doctor he is. It is just the old past with Charles that will gnaw at them both.

Before we go, is there any chance at large-scale crossovers this time around — or is it hard, given the compressed schedules?

Frolov – I think it would be really hard. It’s still being discussed, but there are a lot of obstacles. Everyone is on an accelerated schedule, and each show has their own dramatic lines. It’s tough.

Related – Get some more news regarding the Chicago Med premiere now

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