Chicago Fire season 12 will premiere on Wednesday January 17, and will also mark the final episode of Alberto Rosende's Blake Gallo, as he will be leaving the show after four years – and so it is no surprise to learn that there were a lot of tears on set during his final scenes.
"Gallo has been a big part of the show for a long time and had a Super Bowl season last season with a great journey, and so the reason he leaves makes sense and the timing kind of made sense," showrunner Andrea Newman tells HELLO! before the show's return to NBC.
"But I will say that it's hard to say goodbye to Gallo and it's particularly hard for Violet (Hanako Greensmith) and Ritter (Daniel Kyri) as well, as they were quite the trio, - and in real life too - so there were a lot of tears on the set that day in real life."
Andrea continued: "There's a line from Boden in the premiere, which is along the lines of, 'Once you've been a part of 51 you're always a part of 51,' so the door is always open to see Gallo again and, and he's certainly a huge part of the family."
Shadowhunters star Alberto joined the series in season eight as the reckless new firefighter candidate. He was upped to a regular in 2019 and has become a core member of the firehouse.
This 12th season will also see the departure of Kara Killmer's Sylvie Brett, but before she heads out to, presumably, Portland, Oregon to live with her fiance Matthew Casey (Jesse Spencer).
Andrea shares that things are going to get bad for Brett before they can get better.
"Brett is really going to throw herself into the job in a whole new way and she will have some high-stakes, big action stories, more than she's ever had and unlike anything she's had before," Andrea says before teasing: "And she's going to take some risky, risky ventures out there – and in one case, maybe too risky."
Kara joined the show in season three; both Kara and Alberto have also appeared in the spin-off shows Chicago PD and Chicago Med.
It is thought that the actress will appear in the first half of the upcoming season and depart part of the way through. In the show's 10th season, Jesse Spencer, who played Sylvie's boyfriend Captain Matthew Casey, left the show, with his character moving to Oregon.
Sylvie and Matthew begin a long-distance relationship, which she ended during the 11th season premiere. However, the season ended with Matthew returning to propose to Sylvie, and although we did not see her answer, promotional pictures have confirmed she is wearing an engagement ring.