Jesse Spencer Exits ‘Chicago Fire’ After 10 Seasons – Watch His Touching Behind-the-Scenes Farewell (Video)
Jesse Spencer exited “Chicago Fire” on Wednesday’s episode of the NBC drama, which was the final hour to include Spencer’s Captain Matthew Casey as a series regular.
Spencer paid tribute to his time on the show by posting a farewell video to social media that featured tons of behind-the-scenes footage of him and his co-stars, as well as Spencer himself singing a song about leaving the show.
The video, titled “FireBug (si ça te fait plaisir)” (which translates from French to “if it makes you happy”), opens with a shot of a butterfly on the set of “Chicago Fire” and leads into a montage of special moments between Spencer and the cast, crew and producers of the Dick Wolf series.
The clips are set to a song performed by Spencer that is packed with direct references to his friends on the show and the most memorable, grueling and fun aspects of playing a firefighter.
The almost four-minute video ends with that same butterfly as it lands right on the “Chicago Fire Department” patch on a “Chicago Fire” costume.
Readers can watch Spencer’s tribute to “Chicago Fire” via the video above.
Spencer has starred as Capt. Matthew Casey, who leads the Truck Company and is unwavering in his commitment to the job, on NBC’s “Chicago Fire” since the series premiered in 2012. His exit came on Wednesday’s episode of the drama series, which was its 200th installment.
Matt Casey was not killed off the show, leaving the potential for Spencer to one day return to the series in some form. Instead, Casey left the firehouse — and the show — by moving to Oregon to take care of his late best friend Andy Darden’s sons, saying some seriously sad goodbyes to his buddies at Truck 81 before heading out.
“I realized 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,” Spencer said during a Zoom press conference with reporters ahead of his exit. “I called [showrunner] Derek [Haas] and broke him the news, said I thought it was time to leave the show, and he agreed that we should at least get Casey to 200 episodes. It was a difficult decision because I’ve 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.”
Showrunner Haas added: “I was, of course, wanting to talk Jesse into staying and coming back. But I was very happy that he gave us five more episodes than just saying at the end of a season, which happens sometimes, too, like, ‘I’m out.’ That let us bring back a storyline from Season 1, which I know Jesse was excited about when we pitched it to him, to bring back the Darden boys and really tie in the pilot to Jesse’s leaving.”
The remaining cast of “Chicago Fire” includes Taylor Kinney, Eamonn Walker, Kara Killmer, David Eigenberg, Christian Stolte, Miranda Rae Mayo, Joe Minoso, Alberto Rosende, Daniel Kyri and Hanako Greensmith.
“Chicago Fire” is executive produced by Wolf, Derek Haas, Andrea Newman, Michael Gilvary, Reza Tabrizi, Arthur Forney and Peter Jankowski.
The series is produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, in association with Wolf Entertainment.
