As the clock nears LaRoyce Hawkins’ exit from Chicago P.D., producers are planning to give his character a sendoff filled with optimism.
The actor, who has played Officer Kevin Atwater since the NBC police drama premiered in 2014, will leave the series early in season 14, which premieres on Wednesday, Oct. 7.
Showrunner Gwen Sigan shared details on how Atwater will say goodbye.
“We really wanted to give the best sendoff that we could. Of course, you want it to be very natural for the character,” Sigan told TV Insider in an article published earlier this week.
According to the showrunner, the show’s producers wanted Atwater’s departure to feel like a decision he makes for himself.
“And we knew we wanted to make it positive, make it optimistic for him, make it something that for his character could be a choice and that he could almost author it and we could bake it into the episode in a way that felt like, okay, we’re giving this character something that maybe he’s been longing for or wanting for a long time and hasn’t admitted to,” Sigan continued.
Former cast member Jesse Lee Soffer, who played Jay Halstead, returned to direct Atwater’s farewell episode.
“It felt really nice to have it be Jesse who directed it. So somebody from the family from the other side of it who still is able to be a part of the show in a different capacity,” Sigan said.
An exact airdate for Hawkins’ last episode has not been announced.
As previously reported, news of the actor’s departure surfaced in July, with reports saying his character would be written off the show within the first three episodes of the new season.
Season 13 gave Atwater a major development in his personal life when Officer Tasha Fox, played by Karen Obilom, returned to Chicago after moving to Miami, and revealed she was pregnant with his child.
Sigan told Give Me My Remote Atwater’s relationship with Tasha will factor into his final episodes.
Neither Hawkins nor the producers have said publicly why the actor’s character is being written off the show.
Chicago P.D. is produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, in association with Wolf Entertainment.
The series airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.
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