Chicago PD guest star Mark Dacascos has revealed he almost reprised his role on the NBC show; find out what happened and why he didn’t.
The first season of Chicago PD featured a fantastic guest appearance by actor and martial artist Mark Dacascos—and he almost returned to the Intelligence Unit.
Dacascos played Jimmy Shi, the first of Hank Voight’s (Jason Beghe) former partners to resurface, in the Chicago PD season 1 episode “Different Mistakes.”
And in a recent interview with FanSided’s TV website Hidden Remote to promote his new film The Driver, he revealed that he almost came back for another episode, but couldn’t quite make it work.
“I loved Chicago PD. I had a blast,” Dacascos enthused. “The whole cast was great [and] I loved my part. They asked me back for another episode and the schedules didn’t work out—I was out of the country working on something.”
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It’s a shame, because Mark Dacascos is an excellent actor. His appearance on PD came when he was also recurring on CBS‘ Hawaii Five-0 reboot as Steve McGarrett’s nemesis Wo Fat, and other roles include Agents of SHIELD, Lucifer, and John Wick 3.
Or you may remember him from some larger-than-life roles, including The Chairman on Iron Chef America, and back in the 90’s, Jimmy Lee in the Double Dragon movie.
“Double Dragon or Iron Chef, that’s a toss up,” he said when asked which one he’s recognized for more. “It’s funny because these people in their 30’s or so, they’ll come up and bring up Double Dragon because they were kids when they saw the movie.
“On the other hand, I’ll get children or older people that ask about Iron Chef because Iron Chef‘s demographic goes from kids to older people. It’s probably fifty-fifty.”
When it comes to Chicago PD, Dacascos was more than able to hold his own with Jason Beghe, and that’s not easy! Even back in season 1, Voight could dominate a whole scene on his own, but Mark Dacascos is one of those rare actors who have just as much screen presence as Beghe.
And their scenes together were positively crackling with energy—could you imagine what it would have been like if they’d crossed paths again?
The relationship between Voight and Jimmy didn’t get fully explored in just that one episode, as Jimmy (like many characters from people’s past who appear on the show) was hiding something that the Intelligence Unit dug up.
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But these are people who were partners at one point, and would have had each other’s backs. It would have been great to see more of their history, and maybe put them back on the same side for something; what if a reformed Jimmy helped Voight with a case? We’ve seen a lot of good guys gone bad on Chicago PD, but not so many redemption stories. And especially not when that role would be played by someone as talented as Mark Dacascos.
Maybe one day the stars will align and he’ll get the chance to return—after all, Voight is a lot different than the last time Jimmy saw him, and Rick Eid and company would be nuts to pass up bringing an actor of his caliber back!
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