Chicago Fire cliffhanger preview: Who dies in season 8?

What will happen next on Chicago Fire? Look back at the Chicago Fire cliffhanger and ahead to possible resolutions in the Chicago Fire season 8 premiere.

Every One Chicago series ended on a cliffhanger last season, including Chicago Fire, which left the audience wondering who will make it out of one of the show’s biggest fires yet.

As we continue to count down the time to the show’s Sept. 25 return, we’re looking at each of the cliffhangers again—refreshing fans’ memory, sharing possible clues and newly emerged spoilers, and then making our final predictions as to what will happen.

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains speculation about this season’s upcoming premiere, and may include spoilers/potential spoilers from information that is currently available.

Take a look back at the final moments of Chicago Fire season 7, before we try and figure out how the storyline will be wrapped up in the Chicago Fire season 8 premiere.

The cliffhanger

If you want to refresh your memory, play the video below to see the Chicago Fire cliffhanger from the end of last season:

What we’ve learned since

There has been little revealed about this cliffhanger since it aired in May. The biggest clues are in what’s happened off screen: Matthew Casey and Kelly Severide are safe, since Jesse Spencer and Taylor Kinney both signed on for this season in April 2019.

Also not going to die: Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo), since TVLine has mentioned she continues to support now on-again boyfriend Severide, and maybe Christopher Herrmann (David Eigenberg), given that Firehouse 51’s officers are going to recruit a new firefighter during season 8. But then again, Herrmann is standing right in front of a boiler, so.

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So what happens next?

Fans should expect someone to die in the Chicago Fire season 8 opener. This is deja vu from the season 5 ender, only bigger; it would make little sense for the entire firehouse to be trapped and no one dies. (Especially since One Chicago fans gave the writers a lot of grief for nobody getting killed in the aforementioned season 5 cliffhanger.)

That leaves Joe Cruz (Joe Minoso), Otis (Yuri Sardarov), Mouch (Christian Stolte), Sylvie Brett (Kara Killmer), Emily Foster (Annie Ilonzeh), Darren Ritter (recurring guest star Daniel Kyri) and Wallace Boden (Eamonn Walker) as potential victims.

Of that list it’s probably safe to rule out Brett—because the show still has to get mileage out of her surprise engagement and thus unresolved romantic tension with Casey. Foster just got here, so it’d be weird to dump her after just one season.

It’s more likely that the deceased will be one of the supporting firefighters. Being the supporting cast, they’re characters that are unfortunately easier to replace than a Severide or a Stella. Mouch is probably safe, since the show has already done the “Mouch technically died” thing in that last cliffhanger.

Ritter is the easy choice since he’s the only one who isn’t a series regular, but it could also be Otis, Cruz, or Herrmann. Whichever one of the four it is, grab your tissues. Because especially if it’s one of the middle two, both of those guys are in great places in their lives and it’s going to be very sad if one-half of the show’s comic duo goes away.

For the latest Chicago Fire season 7 spoilers and news, plus more on the entire series, follow the Chicago Fire category at One Chicago Center.