The highly anticipated Chicago franchise includes three shows — Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, and Chicago Med. Every once in a while, they come together for a massive crossover event. Since 2016, Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, and Chicago Med have ed forces to create a three-hour story only three times, the last time being in October 2019. Now, a fourth crossover is on its way, but it'll be quite different from its predecessors.

The three-hour One Chicago crossover premieres on Wednesday, January 29, 2025, on NBC. The franchise's normal schedule for the event will slightly change as Chicago Fire kicks things off at 8 pm ET, followed by Chicago Med at 9 pm ET, and ending with Chicago PD at 10 pm ET.

There have been smaller One Chicago crossovers here and there between Chicago Fire and Chicago PD, Chicago Med and Chicago Fire, and so on. However, nothing compares to when all three TV series team up to produce a three-hour event. The NBC franchise took a break from creating crossovers after the COVID-19 pandemic due to safety restrictions. After more than five years, though, another crossover event is imminent, and it will be unlike anything that came before it.

One Chicago's 2025 Crossover Will Be More Grounded

Patrick John Flueger Teases The Event

A couple of weeks ahead of the 2025 One Chicago crossover, Chicago PD season 12 cast member Patrick John Flueger discussed the event with TV Insider. The crossover will feature a gas explosion in a high-rise building that leaves many people trapped underground (including two established characters in the One Chicago franchise). So, TV Insider asked Flueger to tease anything he could about the disaster that brings the three shows together. The actor said:

"I can't tell you too much about exactly what everyone's up to. I will say that I think out of all the crossovers, this one maybe doesn't have as much smash bangs and booms, but it's incredibly grounded and character-driven. And I think if we're going to come back out of the gate with a three-part crossover, we did pretty well this time as far as just leaning into the characters, leaning into the relationships, leaning into the fact that these people do work in a city where they bump into each other pretty consistently. They have very different jobs, but they all have a lot of respect for each other and some of them even have a lot of care for each other. And so there's a lot of people on a first-name basis that you might not, as an audience member, think that's the relationship, but it is because they just work so closely together, so hand-in-hand so often, and I'm excited to reintroduce that into the world of the Chicago series."

Based on Flueger's comments, it seems as if the gas explosion at the beginning of the three-hour event will be one of the only flashy scenes in the crossover. Everything else will be, as Flueger suggested, grounded. Previous crossovers in the One Chicago universe have often taken the more dramatic route, which makes sense, given the naturally grand scale that events like these contain. However, things will be different during the Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, and Chicago Med episodes on January 29.

Why A More Character-Driven One Chicago Is Necessary In 2025

All 3 Shows Have A Lot Of New Characters

Flueger's statement inspires hope that the 2025 One Chicago crossover will live up to the hype. It needs to be more character-driven than previous events simply because the casts of all three TV shows have changed since the 2019 crossover. There will be new dynamics to play with and integrate into this universe, and the focus should be on them. Only time will tell how the One Chicago crossover compares to the three that came before it, though.

Source: TV Insider