Dick Wolf’s One Chicago shows have lots and lots of memorable characters at any given time, but some of them stand out from the massive crowd of Windy City first responders. That’s why it came as a blow when, in 2022, “Chicago P.D.” favorite Jesse Lee Soffer bid the show farewell. Soffer’s Jay Halstead was a fan darling for much of his time on the show, both by himself and as one half of the popular “Linstead” relationship with Sophia Bush’s Detective Erin Lindsay.
Unlike “Chicago Fire” star Yuri Sardarov — whose character was written out as one of the major emotional blows the franchise likes to deal every once in a while — it was immediately clear to all that Soffer’s departure from the show was the actor’s personal choice. He didn’t really elaborate on his reasons at the time, but in a 2023 interview with Variety, Soffer finally opened up on his decision to leave the procedural.Â
“I really wanted to grow and expand, and we’ve only got this one trip. If I signed up again, it would have been for another three years. I would have turned 40 on the show. I thought, ‘You know what? It’s time to take a risk.’ It was one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever had to make in my life. Let’s be honest: I love the fans of our show so much, and I love my fans. I know that they’re still grieving this, and to some degree, I am too.”
Soffer didn’t venture quite as far from Chicago P.D. as you might expect
While Jesse Lee Soffer chose to walk away from his role in the binge-worthy crime show, he nevertheless stayed surprisingly close to “Chicago P.D.” in more ways than one. In fact, he returned to the show almost immediately after finishing his last scene … only, this time he served the series as a director. He’s directed two episodes of the show so far — the season 10 episode “Deadlocked” and season 11’s “Inventory” — and credits the transition behind the camera to the work he already put in when he was still playing Halstead. Here’s what he had to say about the directing experience in the Variety interview:
“Some of it was effortless. Some of it was frustrating. Some of it was super rewarding. Some of it was humbling. It was easier than I thought it was gonna be, because we’re storytellers in this industry, and I love telling stories. When I’d get a script that was a Halstead-centric story, I’d break that sucker down so much, calling the producers with suggestions. I’ve been doing that all along, so it was an easy shift.”
His post-One Chicago acting work has also been surprisingly close to his “Chicago P.D.” gig. In 2024, he joined the cast of “FBI: International” as Wes Mitchell, a brash supervisory special agent who joins the show’s International Fly Team in season 4, and soon establishes his spot within the group. As it happens, the “FBI” franchise is another Dick Wolf joint that very much exists in the same universe as the One Chicago shows. This could make things very interesting if Soffer ever returns to the role of Halstead and Wolf Entertainment plays its crossover cards well.