What is Will Halstead’s future on Chicago Med?

What’s next for Will Halstead when Chicago Med returns?

Will Halstead’s future on Chicago Med doesn’t look particularly bright.

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for both episodes of Chicago Med season 6 that have aired so far. If you are not caught up, you can do so with our recaps.

In the first two Chicago Med season 6 episodes, Will (Nick Gehlfuss) found out that his girlfriend had relapsed on drugs and broke up with her, then discovered that not only had a colleague been promoted over him but that he hadn’t even been considered for promotion.

He’s had yet another failed relationship and has no possibility of professional advancement, so what exactly is Will going to do with himself? And more importantly, what is Chicago Med going to do with him?

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What we’re seeing in season 6 is the culmination of where the show has taken him in the past few seasons. For a long time, Will’s primary character development came through his on-again, off-again relationship with Dr. Natalie Manning (Torrey DeVitto).

But there was so much back and forth between them—whether it was Will drunkenly making out with someone else or Natalie randomly accusing Will of being sexist when he came to her defense—that it wasn’t a healthy relationship, let alone the true love the series wanted it to be.

It was a massive step last season when Will rejected Natalie’s latest attempt to reconcile and told her that he was better off without her, because he is.

Yet once he split from Natalie, Chicago Med didn’t give Will much chance to grow on his own. The plot of him taking a stand against a drug-addicted doctor could have been compelling—but then it turned into another romantic subplot as Will slept with her instead and then became her biggest advocate.

Will’s breakup with Hannah didn’t come as much of a surprise either, as Jessy Schram was billed as a recurring guest star, meaning that she wasn’t going to stay around forever. Her days were particularly numbered on this show, which rarely carries plots over from one season to the next.

But once again, Dr. Halstead’s life was defined by the woman he was dating, and him trying to fix her issues.

Now he’s sulking about not being considered as Emergency Department chief, but Chicago Med set him up for that one. Will might have been around longer than Dr. Ethan Choi (Brian Tee), but he’s also gotten threatened with lawsuits and shown plenty of impaired judgment when he likes someone.

The last thing Will Halstead needs is another girlfriend. He’s not going to move anywhere in his career. He does have this clinical trial he’s agreed to work on, but as longtime viewers of the show know, doctors getting involved with pharmaceutical companies can be kind of sketchy.

So what’s his best move?

Maybe all of this loss will be motivation for Will to start doing things for himself. There’s no one who’s depending on him right now and no one he needs to impress. That would mean focusing on his work, which seems the best direction to take him in.

He could try to take on a new specialty, but that’s unlikely since Chicago Med is focused exclusively on the ED these days. He might not be the boss, but he could prove by working with Choi that he’s matured and put himself in line for other opportunities in the future. He knows that now he has a bad reputation, so instead of moping, why not make an effort to change that?

Season 6 should be where we see what Will Halstead is made of. He has no romantic drama in his way and something to prove in his career. This could be the season where the character gets to be somewhat reinvented and stand on his own as a doctor. But something has to change for him, because right now, he’s stuck in a rut with no clear direction to go.

For the latest Chicago Med season 6 spoilers and news, plus more on the entire series, follow the Chicago Med category at One Chicago Center.