Before Chicago Med season 11 began, fans of the medical drama learned that Dr. Will Halstead was going to return to the show during its landmark 200th episode.
While Will's return, followed by Dr. Natalie Manning's surprise comeback, created a problem for the show, it would be an understatement to say it was exciting. It is also easy to argue that the moment that Will walked back into Gaffney Chicago Medical Center for the first time in years was one of Chicago Med's best 2025 moments.
Considering Will's return was such a big deal for the show, its characters, and the series fans most of all, it makes sense that some viewers talked about it a lot before, during, and after the episodes featuring the character aired. Despite that, it seems like it has flown under the radar that the medical drama seemed to tease Will's return a lot earlier than many fans realize.
Major Chicago Med season 10 moment seems to have teased Halstead's return
As part of one of Chicago Med season 10's most memorable storylines, Sharon Goodwin was kidnapped and then stabbed by the loved one of a former patient as part of a harrowing attack. Thankfully for the show, Sharon survived after Dr. Dean Archer came to her aid within moments of her suffering the horrific wound.
During season 10, episode 9, "Broken Hearts," Sharon was recovering from her wounds when she received a series of visitors. When one of those visitors was from a character who'd been gone since season 4, Dr. Sarah Reese, something remarkable happened. A January 2025 Screen Rant article detailed the fact that Sharon expressed her pleasant surprise that Sarah was checking on her by making a joke that referenced Will.
"Who's next? Will Halstead?"
In retrospect, it seems like that joking moment was a tease that Will would walk back into the hospital during season 11. That said, some fans may draw the perfectly reasonable conclusion that it was just a throwaway joke that writers thought was funny, not an intentional Easter egg that pointed to what was to come. To be clear, it absolutely is possible that is the case. However, there is a very compelling reason to think that moment may have been a very intentional tease.
Before Chicago Med season 10 began filming, Allen MacDonald took over as the medical drama's showrunner. During interviews that he has taken part in since then, MacDonald has talked about how much he enjoys having legacy characters return to Chicago Med. For example, an article on the official NBC website featured MacDonald talking about Will's return. That article quoted MacDonald explaining that he decided long before season 11 that he wanted to bring Will back.
"When I started this job, I went back and watched all the episodes, and I fell in love with Dr. Will Halstead very quickly. He was one of the characters I knew that I wanted to bring back, and so it took some time and some working out but we have brought him back."
That quote shows that Chicago Med's boss almost certainly knew that he hoped Will would return when season 10 was being produced. More importantly, those comments from Chicago Med's boss seemed to confirm that he was working toward figuring out how to accomplish that goal. While there is no definitive proof, MacDonald's plans for Will make it seem very unlikely that the character was referenced during season 10 for unrelated reasons. It is also worth noting that during another interview, MacDonald stated that Will almost appeared during season 10 as part of a crazy plot twist that was considered. Clearly, plans were in the works for the character when that joke was written.