Is Kelly Severide Leaving Chicago Fire? Here’s if Taylor Kinney Will Be Back This Season or if He’s Gone For Good

With him missing from a majority of episodes this season, fans may have concerns over if Kelly Severide is leaving Chicago Fire and what happened to Taylor Kinney’s character.

Chicago Fire is NBC’s drama series following the professional and personal lives of firefighters, rescue personnel and paramedics of the Chicago Fire Department’s fictional Firehouse 51. Kinney made his debut as Kelly Severide, a lieutenant at Firehouse 51 and an officer in charge of Squad 3, in season 1 of Chicago Fire in 2012. Severide started dating his now-wife, Stella Kidd, another firefighter at Firehouse 51, in season 4. They become engaged in season 9 and marry in season 10.

Severide has been a fan favorite on Chicago Fire since his debut with the rest of Firehouse 51 more than a decade ago. But with him missing from several episodes in season 11, there are a lot of questions about if Kelly Severide is leaving Chicago Fire and what happened to Taylor Kinney’s character. Read on for what we know about if Kelly Severide is leaving Chicago Fire.

Is Kelly Severide leaving Chicago Fire?

Is Kelly Severide leaving Chicago Fire? Severide’s most recent episode of Chicago Fire was season 11, episode 14, “Run like Hell,” in which he joined his wife, Stella Kidd, at Molly’s Pub, where she asks him about Captain Tom Van Meter, a commander and arson investigator for the Chicago Fire Department’s Office of Fire Investigation, who Severide has worked with. When Kidd asks Severide about Van Meter, Severide shows her his phone. When Kidd reads Severide’s phone, she looks surprised and asks him, “Wow. What are you going to do.”

The next episode — season 11, episode 15, “Damage Control” — sees Van Meter tell Deputy District Chief Wallace Boden Jr. that Severide has left Chicago to train at “the best arson investigation training program in the world.” He explained that the opportunity, which was too big for Severide to pass on, was at the last minute, which is why Severide wasn’t there to tell Boden himself. While Boden is disappointed, he tells Van Meter that the training will be a positive for Firehouse 51 when Severide returns.

So is Kelly Severide leaving Chicago Fire? The answer is no. Deadline reported in January 2023 that Taylor Kinney — who has played Severide on Chicago Fire since season 1 — was taking a “leave of absence” from the series to deal with a “personal matter.” Deadline — which reported that the cast and crew of Chicago Fire were informed of Kinney’s leave on January 20, 2023 — confirmed that Kinney’s leave is temporary and that he’s expected to be back on Chicago Fire. Deadline also reported that the cast and crew of Chicago Fire were informed of his leave on January 20, 2023. Given that the finales of most Chicago Fire seasons air between mid-April to late-May, it’s possible that Severide could be out for the rest of season 11.

Kinney is one of Chicago Fire‘s few remaining original cast members. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the series’ season 5 finale in 2019, Kinney looked back on his half-decade on the series. “It’s tough to see the forest through the trees. Maybe over hiatus I can take a good step back and take it all in,” he said. “But to think that we started that long ago, and especially network shows, most of these don’t even see the light of day from the pilot.”