With Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) out of the Intelligence Unit, she leaves a vital gap concerning the Chicago P.D. team dynamics. Hailey was the closest Voight had to a peer following Olinsky’s death, and without her, he is bound to struggle. She was the voice of reason and warning when Voight seemed to go off the rails more often. When Season 12 of Chicago P.D. premieres, the show will focus on another character who can fill the gap Hailey left. Showrunner Gwen Sigan talked to TV Fanatic about what’s on the horizon for the show, and she revealed that Assistant State’s Attorney Nina Chapman will take the role Upton previously played.
“We love Sara [Bues], who plays Chapman. She’s such a great actress. She and Jason [Beghe] have this great chemistry together. And I think she really represents another adult — a genuine peer, like another person in the room with him who he doesn’t oversee. He’s not her boss, so it allows for a different dynamic,” Sigan began, previewing what’s different that Chapman brings. “It allows her to be really honest and very upfront with him. She talks to him very straight, which is nice. I think that’s what he respects about her: that she will call him out,” she continued.
ASA Chapman Will Be the Voice of Reason In ‘Chicago P.D.’ Season 12.
This new dynamic will not benefit Voight only. It will also save the team from imploding. Voight is everyone’s boss, and they must do what he tells them. As a result, his relationship with them is quite different. Even when they don’t agree with his decision, they must execute it. Chapman will be the deterrent that stops Voight from exhausting them, since he’s in a different mental state in Season 12 following the near-death experience. “She will tell him, ‘You need to slow down. You are burning out your team.’ They have a really nice kinship,” Sigan previewed what was first teased in the One Chicago new seasons teaser. She continued:
“We’ll see it deepen throughout the season, and that relationship will transform a bit. Again, that’s another way we’ve gotten to explore Voight, who he is, and why he is the way he is. You know, like there’s a certain — he likes that most of his relationships are with the people in his unit, and he’s their boss. It’s a boundary. But for Chapman, she reminds him, ‘That’s not me.'”
Watch how this relationship progresses when Chicago P.D. returns on September 25. Catch up with past seasons on Peacock.
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