New Chicago Med showrunner Allen MacDonald has big plans for our favorite medical drama!
We had the opportunity to chat with MacDonald for a few minutes about what to expect for the premiere and beyond.
The season will start off big and build from there. Read on for an exclusive sneak peek into what to expect!
On Becoming Chicago Med’s New Showrunner
MacDonald Has The Support He Needs To Hit The Ground Running
For the past nine years, Chicago Med has been co-headed by Diane Frolov and Andy Schneider, but for season 10, new Chicago Med showrunner Allen Macdonald is taking the reins.
This seemed challenging, though MacDonald has had plenty of experience, having worked on shows ranging from ER to 13 Reasons Why.
But how did he feel about taking over the long-running medical drama?
MacDonald told us, “At times it was stressful, but overall, it’s been a really positive experience.”
He also shared with us that he watched all 176 episodes of Med so that he could get a feel for the characters and “quickly fell in love with the world and wanted to tell stories with these characters.”
Importantly, Macdonald is not doing this alone.
As the new Chicago Med showrunner, he turned to others who had been with the franchise longer, such as Andrew Newman and Gwen Segan, who he said helped him “hit the ground running.”
That’s important, because as the showrunner, MacDonald wears a lot of hats.
He explained that he coordinates from Los Angeles, where he is based, with producing director Anna Decosa and Chicago line producer Niki DeLon, communicating with them often to ensure everyone’s on the same page.
He also works closely with his writing team, doing everything from providing notes and sending them to write scripts to writing material himself.
Sad News For Marcel Fans
MacDonald Confirmed That Marcel Will Be Written Out Before The Premiere
After the news broke that Dominic Rains is leaving Chicago Med, Marcel fans were hoping to see him one last time, but unfortunately, that is not to be.
MacDonald explained:
I felt very strongly that the previous showrunners, Diane and Andy, had done a fabulous job [of ending Marcel’s storyline]. I think when they wrote the finale, it wasn’t clear if he was coming back or not, but that they wrote it in such a way that I felt he was written out and that we will understand going into the season premiere why he left.
MacDonald is right. It’s not surprising that Marcel will have left Gaffney Medical Center prior to the season premiere, even though those of us who are Marcel fans would have liked to have had one last episode with him.
Crockett Marcel was one of my favorite Chicago Med characters, but since his absence has been dealt with already, it’ll leave more room for the new Chicago Med showrunner to develop other characters and plots in the premiere.
Chicago Med Will Go Big This Season
Although There Will Be Quiet Moments, There Will Also Be A Lot Of High-Stakes Drama
The new Chicago Med showrunner is starting things off with a bang, as the ED rushes to help a bunch of people who were on a capsized commuter boat.
MacDonald added that there would be a lot of high-stakes stories this season, though he also alluded to some quieter moments.
He also has a lot planned for each of our favorite characters and told us, “I started the season early enough where I felt like there’s been plenty of time to plot what each character was going to go through and big signposts of the season were going to be. “
Med will also have its share of obscure medical cases, as always, though MacDonald kept their exact nature to himself to keep a sense of mystery. So we’ll just have to tune in to find out what those are.
Pavel Story News
Fallout For Dr. Charles And Dr. Ripley, But Some Exciting News Too
When we left off, Pavel had accused Ripley of beating him up, which left Ripley in a precarious position.
The new Chicago Med showrunner has plenty of fallout in store for us from this cliffhanger.
For those who weren’t a huge fan of this story, the good news is that MacDonald confirmed we will know what happened to Pavel by the end of the season premiere.
However, there will also be some fallout from the cliffhanger.
While there won’t be a split for the sake of drama, we can expect some relationship problems for Dr. Charles and Liliana as well as for Drs. Asher and Ripley.
Ripley and Hannah’s problem seems especially reasonable, with Hannah wanting answers that Ripley doesn’t want to give:
We find out very quickly that there’s an icy chill going on between Ripley and Hannah, and that they are on a bit of a break. And the reason for that is because he’s never told her what happened that night, and she’s asked. And so she says, until you can be honest with me, we’re putting this relationship on pause.
Med will also have a time jump of about a month from the season 9 finale, which will give the relationship drama enough time to get going.
What’s Ahead For Our Favorite Characters?
MacDonald Gave Us A Few Previews
There’s exciting drama ahead for almost all of our favorite Chicago Med characters.
MacDonald didn’t want to say too much, but he did reveal that Dr. Charles will encounter some people from his past who will “hold a mirror up to him a little bit,” adding that the “non-spoiler answer would be that he is doing a lot of self-reflection this season.”
Any guesses who those people might be? I’m hoping for another visit from Charles’ daughter, Anna, who hasn’t been around in a while.
The new Chicago Med showrunner also shared that while he felt Sharon and Bert’s Alzheimer’s story had come to a beautiful end for now, there will be plenty of other story for Sharon, some of it involving Maggie.
“Maggie already basically runs the ED,” he shared. “But she wants to challenge herself more. And that’s something that she’s going to do in conjunction with [Sharon] Goodwin as the season continues.”
Maggie will do that while also navigating her new relationship with Loren, which means that barring any last-minute plot twists, she’s probably done with Ben for good.
I loved Maggie and Ben when they were together, but we’ve been through the wringer with these two and it was heading for tired TV trope territory.
I’m glad the new Chicago Med showrunner is moving forward with Maggie’s new relationship instead!
“Gaffney Is A Dysfunctional Family”
The New Chicago Med Showrunner Sees The Characters This Way
In general, MacDonald sees the characters as one big, dysfunctional family, with each person having their own problems that get in the way of being a cohesive unit, adding that fans should “be very excited about the ways in which we’re designing these characters to bounce off each other as the season goes on.”
The new Chicago Med showrunner also promised a lot of action in the ED and secrets revealed as Chicago Med season 10 progresses.
Over to you, Chicago Med fanatics. How excited are you for the new season? What storylines are you most looking forward to?
Hit the comments and let us know.
Chicago Med Season 10 will premiere on September 25, 2024 at 8/7c and stream on Peacock on September 11.
