Which Halstead is the older brother on One Chicago?

We all love the Halstead brothers. Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer) is more stoic, and his direct approach to police work makes him one of the most capable people in the IU. Will (Nick Gehlfuss) is goofier, and more willing to comfort patients as he treats them in ED. They rarely cross paths, but when they do its always fascinating to watch these different personalities clash.

Both Halsteads are well defined, as their descriptions suggest, but their ages are tougher to pin down. Their birthdays are never mentioned, and barring the occasional context clue, we never find out how old they are in relation to one another.

Now’s as good a time as any to figure out which brother is younger and which is older.

How old is Jay Halstead on Chicago PD?

The answer is not as simple as it may initially seem. When Will is introduced in the second season of Chicago PD, Jay refers to him as his “little brother”. Case closed, right? Well, not exactly. While it was supported by Soffer on Twitter, the narrative quickly flipped to support the opposite case.

One Reddit user, u/HyalinSilkie, posited that Will was actually the older brother, and that his leaving for medical school led to resentment on the part of Jay, who eventually enlisted in the military.

While the user didn’t brandish any confirmation from the writers or actors, their angle was at least partially confirmed by Soffer, who tweeted out: “Will is older on TV. Jesse is older in real life.”

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The inference, of course, being that Will is the older brother but that Soffer, 38, is older than Nick Gehlfuss, 37. This seems to be the going theory, as the only contradictory piece of evidence dates back to the introduction of Will’s character.

It’s likely that the writers tossed off the distinguisher without much thought, but later came to feel that it made more sense for Will to be the older brother instead of Jay (even if their personalities suggest otherwise. Given how close the actors are in age, it’s not a stretch to flip them.

As for their specific ages, we can assume that both characters are around the same age as the actors portraying them. All we have to do is flip the order of their real-life ages, and we come away with both Jay and Will being in their late 30s.

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