Chicago PD star LaRoyce Hawkins has shared a new update on the upcoming 11th season of the popular procedural – and it's disappointing news for fans.
While speaking at an acting masterclass lecture at Louisiana State University, the actor confirmed that filming for season 11 is likely to be delayed due to the ongoing writers' strike.
"Naturally, after the writers strike, it's going to take the writers a while to start warming up their rooms again and starting to conceptualize stories again," he said. "So we might need like a three-week buffer."
LaRoyce, who plays Officer Kevin Atwater on the show, is hopeful that filming will commence in the next two months as negotiations draw to a close. "From my personal research, we have a big hill to climb before we can find an agreement," he said, according to Digital Spy. "I'm faithful and optimistic that it will only be a couple more months, if that, that we're off."
While the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have yet to reach an agreement, industry insiders have predicted that the strike will draw to a close in the fall.
So, when will Chicago PD and the other One Chicago shows return to our screens?
Earlier this month, NBC announced some changes to its fall schedule, which doesn't include any new episodes of One Chicago shows or Law & Order.
This means no new episodes of Chicago PD, Chicago Fire, Chicago Med will air on Wednesday nights in the fall.
Instead, NBC will initially broadcast the season finale of America's Got Talent on Wednesday 27 September, before going on to air One Chicago reruns every Wednesday evening.
With the strike predicted to end in the fall, this means that production will likely begin once an agreement has been reached. Therefore, fans can probably expect new episodes to arrive in 2024.
Why are the writers on strike?
Members of the WGA are currently on strike due to a dispute over how writers are compensated in the streaming era.
MORE: Chicago Med cast speak out on future of show amid strike - details
MORE: Chicago Fire's Taylor Kinney's last social media post is flooded with supportive messages
The strike began on 2 May after the WGA failed to come to an agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents major studios such as Disney, Netflix, Apple and Amazon.
The WGA demands include a pay increase, a stable pay structure and guarantees that artificial intelligence won't be used in scriptwriting.
A delay in production isn't the only major change the One Chicago franchise is facing for its upcoming seasons.
Back in April, it was reported that there have been budget cuts for the 2023-2024 season which will see the main cast appear in fewer episodes.
Deadline reported that the episodic guarantees, which is the number of episodic fees each series regular is entitled to per season, are being renegotiated and so the cast are set to appear in around 18-20 episodes per season, rather than the usual 22.