Chicago Med star exits show as season 8 finale airs
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Chicago Med spoilers follow.
Chicago Med's season 8 finale has aired with one of its key cast members leaving the show.
'Does One Door Close and Another One Open?' saw Nick Gehlfuss's character Dr Will Halstead handing in his resignation and leaving the hospital for the last time. Gehlfuss has portrayed the character since the very first episode back in 2015.
Viewers also saw Will reuniting with his ex-fiancée Natalie Manning (Torrey DeVitto), who made a surprise appearance following her exit in season 6.
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Will then left for Seattle with his former lover and her son Owen, but not before saying an emotional goodbye to his beloved co-workers.
Gehlfuss has opened up on his final moments on the show, telling Variety that it was a "difficult decision" to leave.
"Ultimately, I felt I'd taken Dr Halstead as far as I can go with him. I think that comes down to a creative part of you, or the energy or spirit you have that you're either built for a very long time with one person or not," he said.
"I am attracted to the profession for the variety in it, and eight years is a long time. It's two college degrees! I'm joking now that I basically have a doctorate in television."
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Gehlfuss also opened up on the emotional process of filming the finale in April, just a couple of months after informing Chicago Med creator Dick Wolf of his decision to leave.
"It's overwhelming, because of all the emotions," he explained. "It wouldn't be that way if it didn't mean so much.
"It's like with love, if you truly love somebody then you're going to have very high moments and very low moments, because it's just so important to you.
"It was important to me to give everyone an advance notice of me leaving so that we didn’t finish cold turkey."
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, DeVitto added that Will and Natalie "kind of walk off into the sunset and you can assume they live happily ever after".
She added that while she wasn't expecting the call to come back, when she learned Natalie's return was part of Will's exit storyline, she had to sign up.
"I do feel like the fans never got what they wanted with Natalie and Will, and to be honest with you, Nick and I never even got the ending that we felt we deserved for our two characters," said DeVitto.
"To be able to come back and give that to not just the viewers that love the show so much and really rooted for these characters, but also to give it to me and Nick, who really wanted this ending for our characters was really so beautiful."
Another original Chicago Med star – Brian Tee, who played Dr Ethan Choi – also left the show earlier this season.
Tee announced his decision to leave earlier this year in order to spend more time with his family, and to pursue other career opportunities.
Chicago Med airs on NBC in the US, and on Sky Witness in the UK.
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