Severide’s Back! ‘Chicago Fire’ Boss Talks Stellaride Issues & Promises the ‘Heat Is Still There’

“Severide’s got some big decisions to make” in Chicago Fire Season 12, executive producer Andrea Newman teases.

Taylor Kinney is back full-time after taking a leave of absence last January, and “Severide is front and center of this season,” the EP tells TV Insider. He is going to have quite a bit to fix now that he’s back, even though six months have passed between seasons. First and foremost? His relationship with his wife, Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo), who, as our exclusive trailer showed, “had to fly to Alabama, put [him] in handcuffs, and drag [him] home.” Ouch!

“There’s a lot of fun to be had there, and within moments of the [season] starting, you’ll see that although the heat is definitely still there between them, there’s a whole new dynamic that’s been created because of that going MIA that Severide did and there’s some tension and edge between them,” Newman previews. “The arson case that Severide throws himself into in the premiere is going to bring up a lot of that stuff. So the audience really hasn’t missed much in terms of what they’ve gone through. We’ll see it all in the premiere, when he agrees to take on this arson case and she isn’t so happy about it. She feels like arson is his drug and he just gets lost in it.”

Could that mean a time comes when Severide has to stop helping out OFI (Office of Fire Investigation)? That’s where those decisions come into play. “That’s the issue at hand [for Severide and Kidd]: How are they going to deal with this going forward and how does it change their relationship?” asks the EP.

Their relationship will change, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. “No couple stays the same forever,” Newman points out. (It also ties into the season’s theme of change.) “But they are deeply in love. They can’t keep their hands off each other. And I think they have to kind of work through this and get to a different place, maybe a better place. So like every couple, it’s real and it has its challenges and it never stays exactly the same.”

Kidd’s not the only one Severide left behind. Cruz (Joe Minoso) was the one who stepped in to lead Squad in the lieutenant’s absence. “Cruz is really his right-hand man, so there’ll be some lingering issues between Severide and Cruz about that and some stuff to work out there,” Newman shares.

Maybe Severide should just plan to buy a round at Molly’s once a week for the near future.

Chicago Fire, Season 12 Premiere, Wednesday, January 17, 9/8c, NBC