NBC's Chicago Fire Season 15 marked a fresh start for all the characters after a game-changing cliffhanger finale last season. Chicago Fire has had its fair share of cast exits since the show's premiere in 2012. While Firehouse 51 is seen by many as a workplace family, the One Chicago series routinely cycles its cast to refresh the ensemble. Some of the notable exits over the years include Leslie Shay (Season 2), Peter Mills (Season 3), Battalion Chief Wallace Boden (Season 12), and, most recently, Sam Carver and Darren Ritter last season. Amid these exits, some of the original Chicago Fire cast members have remained since the pilot, including Taylor Kinney's Kelly Severide, David Eigenberg's Christopher Herrmann, Christian Stolte's Mouch, and Joe Miñoso's Joe Cruz.
Chicago Fire's Season 14 finale ended on a cliffhanger after an emergency call sent the team to a fire at a storage facility. Most of Firehouse 51 went inside until a loud explosion cut the episode to black, leaving the fate of the core Chicago Fire firefighters hanging in the balance. Chicago Fire Season 15, Episode 1 confirmed the fates of everyone involved, including a shocker that led to big cast shakeups for the NBC series.
Every Major Cast Member Joining & Leaving Chicago Fire Season 15
Da'Vinchi - Marcus Blake
Da'Vinchi (Abraham D. Juste), best known for his roles in BMF and All American, made his debut in the premiere of Chicago Fire Season 15 as one of the new members of Firehouse 51 (via NBC). The actor portrays firefighter candidate Marcus Blake, a rebellious character who challenges the leadership of Stella Kidd and everyone at the firehouse.
Chicago Fire's debut episode showed Marcus and his fellow trainees still struggling to find their place in Firehouse 51. At one point, their practice drill was described by Herrmann as "one of the worst drills he'd ever seen." Marcus's ego got the best of him later on when he and another candidate argued over protocol during an impromptu call, which led to paramedic Lizzy Novak being hurt.
Clearly, there is still a lot of room for growth for Marcus in Chicago Fire Season 15, and his journey to becoming a proven member of the team is expected to be chronicled on-screen.
Matthew Daddario - McCaffrey
Matthew Daddario, best known as Alec Lightwood on Shadowhunters and previous stints in Blue Bloods and Why Women Kill, joined the cast of Chicago Fire Season 15 (via Deadline) as a fellow firefighter candidate alongside Da'Vinchi's Marcus Blake. Unlike Da'Vinchi, Daddario is only a recurring guest star rather than a series regular.
The premiere revealed that Daddario plays a firefighter named McCaffrey, who is assigned to Truck 81 during his probationary period at Firehouse 51. Not much is known about his backstory, but Chicago Fire Season 15 is expected to pull back the curtain on his origin in the subsequent episodes.
Dermot Mulroney - Chief Pascal
Dermot Mulroney joined Chicago Fire Season 13 as Firehouse 51's new Battalion Chief Dom Pascal, replacing Eamonn Walker's Chief Wallace Boden after his departure in the Season 12 finale. Pascal was initially introduced as a strict, by-the-book chief whose style clashed with the firehouse. Despite that, he earned more trust inside 51, especially after dealing with the fallout of the death of his wife, Monica Pascal.
Chief Pascal went on hiatus for the latter half of Season 14, specifically after the events of the 2026 One Chicago crossover event, where he crossed a line to save one of their own. Pascal returned in the Season 14 finale to press Kelly Severide on a choice between leading Firehouse 51 or taking the chief of the fire investigation unit. However, the same emergency call that led to the cliffhanger put a pin in that conversation.
Chicago Fire Season 15, Episode 1 resolved the cliffhanger, showing Pascal one last time in a heartfelt conversation with Severide before ultimately leaving the series. Pascal gave Severide advice on finding the balance between his role as a new chief and his role as a friend to his fellow firefighters.
Speaking at the Flashback Weekend Chicago Horror Convention in August 2026, Mulroney opened up about his departure from Chicago Fire, admitting that he "loved every minute" he was on-screen in the One Chicago series:
"Now this season, sadly, I have one episode I finish on Tuesday and they write the character off. So, we gave it our all for two seasons. They wrote an incredible story line that put me as an actor on high challenge. So, I loved every minute of it."
Joe Miñoso - Joe Cruz
Perhaps the most emotional exit in Chicago Fire Season 15 is that of Joe Miñoso's Joe Cruz, a character who has been with the show since the 2012 pilot. The Season 14 finale left Cruz in danger during a storage-facility fire, and the Season 15 premiere confirmed that he survived but at a major cost. He was hospitalized after rescuing trapped civilians, confirming that he has been paralyzed from the waist down after suffering a severe spinal fracture due to his heroic actions.
Chicago Fire star Brandon Larracuente, who plays Sal Vasquez, addressed the exit of Miñoso in a new interview with the TV Cave, confirming that the show will give a "wonderful sendoff" for his character in the upcoming episodes:
"Yeah, well, we left last year on a big cliffhanger, so we will give audience members som reprieve. We'll know what happens there. There's a few departures on the show that really impact the firehouse, but... Writers of our show did a wonderful sendoff for Joe Miñoso and I think that fans will really, really appreciate that. He deserves it. He's been there for the past 15 years. He's a core element, a foundational member of the firehouse"
Chicago Fire Season 15's premiere ended with an emotional exchange between Joe Cruz and Herrmann, in which Cruz confirmed that the MRI showed only a fraction of healthy tissue remained around the injury. This revelation marked the end of his time as a firefighter, and it's clear that the next batch of episodes will fully address what's to come for Cruz beyond the firehouse.
