Chicago Fire teased Stella’s departure from Firehouse 51 — but when she is coming back?
During the Wednesday, November 5, episode of the NBC series, Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) and Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) become foster parents to Isaiah (Hero Hunter). The transition created some obstacles since Isaiah didn’t adjust well to a new home while his mother was dealing with health issues.
Isaiah ultimately skipped school to visit Kidd at the firehouse to raise his concerns about the care his mother was receiving, which led to Kidd taking a brief leave of absence — a few weeks to be exact — to help Isaiah’s family in Cleveland.
Stella’s onscreen departure comes just as Chicago Fire is about to go on its winter hiatus, meaning there is a possibility she won’t be gone for too long — if at all — by the time the show returns.
This isn’t the first time Kidd and Severide have faced potential challenges due to offscreen cast exits. After 11 seasons, Kinney, 44, stepped back for a temporary “leave of absence” in January 2023, which was explained away as Severide going to Alabama to help participate in an arson investigation training program.
A source close to production told Us Weekly at the time that Kinney was leaving to deal with a personal matter. Kinney ultimately returned to Chicago Fire for the start of season 12 later that year.
Earlier this season, showrunner Andrea Newman teased to Us how Kidd and Severide would start to explore being foster parents.
“We all saw how Severide reacts, and he is so happy and so joyous. So in that moment, any hesitation [Kidd] had, and seeing him react that way went out the window, but that’s still underneath,” Newman shared in September. “We thought it would be interesting to explore for Kidd [that] when she finds out the pregnancy has not stayed around, she’s carrying guilt for that. She’s carrying guilt because she knew that she wasn’t 100 percent in the way that Severide was 100 percent.”
The showrunner explained that Kidd and Severide will be “shifting gears” and learning in the moment that “there’s no way to plan every step” of becoming parents.
“They had one story in their head of what family was going to look like, and now a new story is going to be written for them,” Newman teased, noting that Kidd helping Natalie, a teen she saved as a child from a fire, during season 13 and losing her own parents as a teenager will continue to shape that story.
She added, “At the end of the day, it’s a lot of obstacle courses and wrenches thrown in a couple that you know is very much in love — but there’s always going to be challenges that come with being a parent, and that’s very much so for them and how they manage this.”
Chicago Fire airs on NBC Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
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