Hightown renewed for season 2; will it affect Chicago Fire?
Will Hightown season 2 keep Monica Raymund from returning to Chicago Fire?
The good news for Monica Raymund fans is that her Starz series Hightown was renewed for a second season on Thursday.
The bad news is that might preclude her from making any more returns as Gabriela Dawson on Chicago Fire.
Starz announced Thursday via press release that it had greenlit Hightown season 2—while the show is only halfway through its first season.
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Raymund stars in the gritty crime drama as Jackie Quinones, a dysfunctional National Marine Fisheries Services agent who discovers a body on Cape Cod and goes to obsessive lengths to find the killer. The series also details Jackie’s struggle for sobriety, as she drinks heavily and uses drugs, but the murder serves as a sort of wake-up call for her.
James Badge Dale (Rubicon, 24), Amaury Nolasco (Prison Break, Chase) and Riley Voekel (The Originals) are also in the main cast. The series premiered on May 17, with audiences able to watch the first episode not only on Starz, but free via Apple TV and Amazon Video.
While this is great news for One Chicago fans who love Monica Raymund (to see her succeeding in her new project), it’s potentially bad news for Dawson fans and Dawsey shippers.
That’s because Raymund is in the majority of Hightown‘s scenes; the show isn’t just about the case, but also about Jackie and her myriad of issues. So depending on when Hightown season 2 goes into production, she might not be available if Derek Haas decides he wants Dawson to make another reappearance in Chicago.
Nothing is confirmed yet—but the door was left wide open the last time we saw Dawson in the episode “Best Friend Magic.” Not only did she sleep with her ex-husband Matthew Casey (Jesse Spencer), but she left him a voicemail inviting him to visit her any time, so clearly the two are not over each other.
Some fans even speculated that Dawson would become pregnant from their one-night stand, but Haas told One Chicago Center that he hadn’t thought of that. He clearly still likes the character, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if he came up with another reason to bring her back.
And for her part, Raymund declared that she would be open to a third guest appearance while she was promoting Hightown in January.
As with every guest star on every TV show, it all comes down to logistics. If an actor is busy with another project, a storyline might change—a prime example of that is how Chicago Fire had to write around Carl Grissom for awhile because actor Gary Cole was in high demand. Raymund has a lot to do on Hightown, and that show is her priority now.
So if you’re a Dawson fan, or still hoping that Dawsey end up back together, having Hightown renewed is going to put a speed bump in those aspirations.
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