It might look the same on the surface, but Chicago Med will be slightly different when the NBC medical drama returns for season two tonight. With staff shakeups and the addition of a few new faces, the dynamic in the E.R. will be changed.
For starters: Dr. Choi (Brian Tee) is in charge now as chief resident.
"I feel with his personality and from the history that he had in the Navy, he feels like he knows how to run a good ship," Tee said on the show's 2016 Television Critics Association summer press tour panel.
And Dr. Rhodes (Colin Donnell) has chosen a different specialty in the hospital: he's in the cardiothoracic surgery department and has a new mentor. Halstead (Nick Gehlfuss) is now an attending in the E.R. and has a new romantic rival for Manning's (Torrey DeVitto) affection, and Reese (Rachel DiPillo) isn't even working in the hospital—she's a barista!
April (Yaya DaCosta) is learning how to live with her tuberculosis diagnosis, which will be her main focus when she returns. "She's still dealing with it. It's going to be a process. This is not a disease that you get over overnight," she explained to E! News when we caught up with her after the panel. "Working in the hospital provides her with a mirror and through her patients she's able to find new meaning in her own life."
With the arrival of Chicago Justice in 2017, Chicago Med will no longer be the new kid in the One Chicago world. That means a fourth series in Dick Wolf's universe and another hour to add to your DVR schedule. You know what else it means? More crossover headache. But Donnell told us that he's delighted to be part of such an expansive world.
"One of the coolest things that Dick Wolf has created is this one universe that seamlessly integrates shows not just in these huge crossover events, but it's the minor integrations that happen on a week-to-week basis," he said. "Every single week a character from Chicago Fire or P.D. is showing up in our show, over on Med, and it'll only expand now that Justice is going to be part of the world."
Watch the video above for more from DaCosta, Donnell and Tee on what's to come in season two, and tune in to Chicago Med on Thursdays at 9 p.m. on NBC.
(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)