Jesse Spencer Explains His Departure From Chicago Fire After 200 Episodes

Published on October 21, 2021.

Jesse Spencer has made the decision to leave Chicago Fire!

The actor has played the beloved Captain Matt Casey since the NBC series premiered in 2012. In the exit episode, his character heads to Portland to visit the sons of his late best friend Andy Darden. It’s clear they are struggling when he arrives, which leads Casey to the decision to leave Chicago and stay with them to help.

Spencer opened up about his decision to leave the show in a roundtable interview. “I’ve been doing TV for a long time. I added it up, and I think this year is my 18th year of network television straight since I went straight from House into Chicago Fire,” he explained.

“We were coming up to the 200th episode so I called [creator] Derek [Haas], made a personal decision and broke the news that I thought it was time to leave the show and he agreed that we should at least get Casey to 200 episodes.”

“This was a difficult decision because I have loved the show from the start but there are other things that I would like to do in the future, and there’s some family that I need to take care of and 18 years is a long time,” Spencer explained. “I was marking off these milestones and looking to the future … and it was time.”

He added, “It felt so organic for me and a perfect full circle and a really reasonable way for Casey to organically leave.”