The Real Reason One Chicago Won't Have A 3-Way Crossover For The 2023-2024 Season
Fans wondering when the next significant One Chicago crossover might occur will have to wait a little longer for another massive meeting of the Wednesday night titans. Speaking with TV Insider in January, "Chicago Med" showrunners Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider explained that a combination of shortened seasons mandated by the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes and the intricate inner workings of each drama's packed schedule of plot twists means that there won't be a massive three-series crossover event for the 2023-24 season.
"As far as a big crossover, it's being talked about, but it's difficult because each show is in a different dramatic place in a way that characters are involved in their stories. So it just becomes, when is it appropriate for one character to cross over into another?" said Frolov.
Referring to the limits imposed on all three shows by the strikes, Schneider added, "[T]he production schedule is shortened, so it's harder to schedule the actors in, but it's something we always try to do." While a more extensive, longer-format crossover seems out of the question for the currently running seasons of each drama, one shouldn't discount the hope that there may be some smaller unifying moments along the way.
That doesn't mean the One Chicago series won't meet in small ways
While there won't be a large-scale One Chicago event during the 2023-24 season, Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider hinted to TV Insider that there might be some smaller-scale crossover moments throughout each new batch of episodes. Indeed, viewers are deep into each program's current batch of episodes and have already been treated to several miniature crossovers, kind of like the moment where Sharon Goodwin (S. Epatha Merkerson) and Sylvie Brett (Kara Killmer) meet up in the Season 11 "Chicago Fire" episode "Something for the Pain," giving fans a crossover they had no idea they needed.
Recent episodes of "Chicago Fire" have already seen some smaller crossovers; during the Season 12 "Chicago Fire" episode "Something About Her," Randy "Mouch" McHolland (Christian Stolte) finds himself running afoul of an obsessed client who's been making use of his paramedicine unit. It takes his wife — the no-nonsense Trudy Platt (Amy Morton) from "Chicago P.D." — to get Mouch out of hot water. Trudy also shows up as Mouch's date to the wedding of Sylvie Brett (Kara Killmer) and Matt Casey (Jesse Spencer) during Episode 6, "Port in the Storm."
The characters also often name-drop one another and assist each other on cases offscreen, which keeps up the strong feeling of interconnectedness that looms over the One Chicago world. While the trio of shows last experienced a full crossover during the "Infection" event in 2019, it's quite likely that all of those characters will meet one another again someday — since all three One Chicago dramas will be back for the 2024-2025 season, viewers will just have to be patient about it.