Jesse Lee Soffer on Chicago PD return: ‘Never say never’
Jesse Lee Soffer has broken his silence. The actor has maintained a pretty active social media, especially when he’s directing on the set of Chicago PD, but he had remained mostly quiet about his decision to leave the show (as a performer). Until now.
Soffer sat down for a lengthy interview with Variety, where he discussed his motivations, his plans for the future, and, perhaps most notably for Chicago PD fans, whether he would consider coming back to the show at some point.
Is Halstead coming back to Chicago PD?
It’s nice to know that there’s no bad blood between Soffer and the rest of the PD team. Granted, his decision to direct an episode suggested things were good, but it’s nice to hear directly from the source that he remains close with many of the cast and crew members.
The actor, who played Jay Halstead for ten seasons, said that he had reached a point where he felt he had maximized the character. “Eventually, you know the character so well, there’s not much that can shift or transform”, he reasoned. “I really wanted to grow and expand, and we’ve only got this one trip.”
It’s an understandable point, especially given that Halstead has interests that expand beyond the realm of acting (one again: directing an upcoming episode). Some fans were maintaining hope that there would be a Halstead cameo in the 200th episode, but it turned out to be in vain.
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There are currently no plans to bring Halstead back into the mix, but Soffer didn’t close the door on returning altogether. When asked if he would ever don the badge and return to the Windy City, he said: “Never say never.”
"“I like to think — and I hope the fans think this too — that he’s just in another country right now, doing what he does best and making the world a safer place”, Soffer added."
While it’s not quite the concrete answer that some of us may have wanted, the fact that he’s still plugged into the One Chicago world, and would consider coming back at some is a small victory.
dark. Next. Was Halstead in the 200th episode?
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