Chicago Med Season 7 - What We Know So Far

"Chicago Med" is an indispensable part of NBC's Dick Wolf-created "One Chicago" universe (alongside "Chicago Fire," "Chicago PD," and the canceled "Chicago Justice"), bringing in the franchise's strongest ratings among its stablemates. Following a group of Illinois-based doctors and nurses who work together at Gaffney Chicago Medical Center in Chicago, the medical drama has been a breakaway hit since its debut, with strong Live+7 ratings, the new gold standard for traditional broadcast TV.

Fans of the show concerned that its sixth season — which concluded on May 26 — will be its last need not worry; the show was renewed for three more seasons by NBC in 2020 (according to Deadline), which means viewers are guaranteed at least two more seasons of high-tension drama and lifesaving interventions. 

So when can you expect the Season 7 of "Chicago Med" to debut? Who will be in it, and what will it be about? Here's everything we know so far.

Season 6 concluded in May 2021, and there is no start date for the filming of the Season 7 just yet. Based on the amount of lead time needed to get previous seasons on the air, it's likely that the seventh season will debut in late September of 2021, though it's possible it may debut as late as early November, as Season 6 did. 

"Chicago Med" has already dealt with COVID-19-related delays; in March of 2020, the show's production was briefly halted due to the pandemic, according to Deadline. That didn't prevent "Chicago Med" from making its scheduled November 11 debut, however which was already a later-than-normal start for the show. "Chicago Med" also dealt with COVID onscreen, making it one of the few shows ambitious enough to retool its story to suit the times.

According to Deadline, "Chicago Med" is NBC's most-watched series of the season in live and same day ratings. It also leads the other One Chicago series in viewers. With that large of an audience on the line, NBC will no doubt want to get this one right.

Spoilers for the Season 6 finale of "Chicago Med" from here on out:

Two major cast members announced their departures from "Chicago Med" just after Season 6 concluded, according to Deadline: Yaya DaCosta, who played nurse April Sexton, and Torrey DeVitto, who played pediatrics specialist Dr. Natalie Manning. Both DaCosta and DeVitto have been with the show since the beginning. Fans who already miss DaCosta will be delighted to learn that she's starring in the forthcoming Fox drama "Our Kind of People," also via Deadline. DeVitto, meanwhile, will be in the film "Skelly," which began filming in Massachusetts in May, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Aside from DaCosta and DeVitto, the rest of the original cast is set to return. This includes Nick Gehlfuss as Dr. Will Halstead, Brian Tee as LCDR Dr. Ethan Choi, S. Epatha Merkerson as Sharon Goodwin, Oliver Platt as Dr. Daniel Charles, and Marlyne Barrett as Maggie Lockwood. Dominic Rains, who joined the show in Season 5 as Dr. Crockett Marcel, will also likely return. It's also quite possible that Steven Webber's Dr. Dean Archer, a recurring character who was named interim chief of the E.D. in light of Ethan's season finale-incurred injury (keep reading for more on that) will become regular cast members in light of the voids that DaCosta and DeVitto have left.

Since the sixth season of "Chicago Med" just concluded, there have been no episode summaries released for the seventh season. There are, however, some continuing threads leftover from the sixth season to be contended with when the show returns.

Natalie's storyline, in particular, left some loose ends behind; she confessed to stealing trial drugs for her ailing mother, a crime for which Will was initially blamed and fired. Viewers never got to witness the fallout of her confession to Goodwin, which will likely be wrapped up when the show returns. April, meanwhile, got into the nurse practitioner's program, which means that her storyline is already at a neat end.

Ethan will likely still be recovering from his gunshot wound (he was shot in the chest by Dean's former patient in the Season 6 finale), and Archer was named ED head in his absence. Since Archer has come to be viewed as something of a loose canon by Choi, this will likely lead to great conflict in Season 7.

Elsewhere, Maggie's connection to Vanessa (Asjha Cooper) still remains a mystery, though it's clear that Vanessa doesn't approve of Maggie's involvement in her life. It's all very fraught, and very Dick Wolf. Whatever turns Season 7 takes, their sure to satisfy.