Taylor Kinney is leaving Chicago Fire in Season 11 – Severide’s Absence

Chicago fire will soon be operating without one of its best men — and we have a few ideas as to how the NBC drama might explain its sudden absence.

As reported last week, longtime series regular Taylor Kinney is stepping down from his role as Lieutenant Kelly Severide to attend to a personal matter. Production was briefed on Kinney’s news on January 20th and given the unexpected turn of events, script rewrites will be required to explain why Severide is absent from the cast. (It’s not yet clear in which exact episode Kinney will say goodbye, or for how long.)

That’s where TVLine comes in, because while the show’s creative team undoubtedly has the situation in hand, we also donned our thinking caps to come up with some sensible scenarios that would take Severide away from Firehouse 51. And consider how important the character is to the show and how much he loves his job, we make sure you justify Severide (temporarily!) leaving his crew.

We’ve come up with some ways the Rescue Squad Leader could potentially transfer to a new job while staying in the Windy City. In other possible storylines, Severide leaves Chicago to reunite with friends and family who need his help elsewhere. And then there’s a twist that puts the firefighter himself in danger to take him out of the action.