Chicago PD season 5: Tracy Spiridakos promoted to series regular

We were wondering when the Chicago PD – Tracy Spiridakos promotion was going to become official; And now, it is!

The Revolution and MacGyver alum Spiridakos will be a series regular for the upcoming fifth season in the role of Hayley Upton, which she played for the first time in an arc at the end of this past season. She came over to Intelligence from Robbery Homicide and helped to fill the void in the team following Burgess’ leave of absence/Marina Squerciati’s maternity leave. She has the respect of Hank Voight (Jason Beghe), and we learned during her time on the show last season that she has also a history with Trudy Platt (Amy Morton), as she credits her for helping to turn her life around many years ago. The fact that her character has this sort of built-in history probably helped to give her this promotion as opposed to finding someone new and bringing them into the fold.

With Sophia Bush (who plays Erin Lindsay) leaving the show, we assumed that the Chicago PD team would bring in another female character. Otherwise, Squerciati and Morton would be the only major women characters in a show heavily dominated by men. We liked Hayley based on what we saw from her in season 4, and it feels like she’d bring a lot to the Intelligence team and have some good backstory to go along with it.

Is it possible that Lindsay could still return? Well, this promotion does rule out that we’ll be seeing much of her. We know that there were hopes after the news of her departure first broke that she would come back and tie up her story; for the time being, the jury’s still out on if that is going to happen. We haven’t heard that she is in Chicago filming, but, there isn’t much proof to the contrary out there, either. Our hope is that one way or another, that story will be resolved and Lindsay and Halstead get some closure. It’s already challenging enough thinking about how the show moves forward without her.

A summer of changes

It’s fairly clear at this point that Chicago PD season 5 is going to feel different than what has come before it. In addition to this change in the cast, Jon Seda is returning as Antonio Dawson following a stretch in which he was a part of the now-canceled Chicago Justice spin-off series. Meanwhile, recent Law & Order: SVU alum Rick Eid is the new showrunner, replacing Matt Olmstead, who has been a part of this edition of the franchise from the beginning.

Sometimes, change can be good — yet, it’s hard to create too many assumptions one way or another without actually seeing the fruits of the new team’s labor.

What do you think about Chicago PD season 5 officially getting more of Tracy Spiridakos? Be sure to sound off now in the comments!

Also, head over to the link here in the event you are interested in the event you want some further insight when it comes to the series. (Photo: NBC.)