‘Chicago Fire’: Michael Bradway Not Returning for Season 14

Is Firehouse 51 about to have at least a few floaters or go down to those two-person trucks like showrunner Andrea Newman told TV Insider was a real thing at the end of Season 13?

Michael Bradway will not be back in Chicago Fire Season 14, according to Soaps.com. He’s part of the cast of the Every Summer After adaptation coming to Prime Video. The outlet reports, however, that the door is open for him to return depending on schedules.

Bradway recurred on the NBC firefighter drama for two seasons as firefighter Jack Damon. It was in the Season 12 finale that he revealed the Lieutenant Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) that he’s his half-brother, after a call involving a tough father-son relationship: Benny (Treat Williams) was his father. While Damon got off to a rough start with 51 in general, things got better after he moved to another firehouse and ran into trouble.

In fact, it looked like Damon was a candidate to be killed off in Episode 15 — that ended up being Chief Dom Pascal’s (Dermot Mulroney) wife Monica (KaDee Strickland) — after he was trapped in a fire. When he tells his lieutenant that a fellow firefighter left him behind, things get rough for him there, with everyone taking the other man’s side. That was when Severide and Lieutenant Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) brought him back to 51, and he fit in much better this time around. His relationships with his brother and sister-in-law improved as well.

But soon after that, an auditor came to 51 and warned, “The CFD is going to be announcing big cuts soon, including layoffs and forced retirements. Probationary and older firefighters are going to be the first to go.”

Damon won’t be the only firefighter 51 loses ahead of or in Season 14. Before Season 13 ended, it was reported that Daniel Kyri (Darren Ritter) and Jake Lockett (Sam Carver) wouldn’t be back as series regulars. Neither character was written out in the Season 13 finale, and Newman told TV Insider she hopes to have them back in some capacity.

“There’s nobody safe in this shakeup,” Newman told us. “Next season is going to be about how the s**t really hits the fan once that mandate comes down and how things get shaken up and how our team can hold together as a family while all this craziness is happening around them.”

Chances are that those shakeups — which we suspect will also bring Brandon Larracuente, joining the cast as a series regular, to 51 — will be used to explain Damon moving to another firehouse but with the door open for him to return to either visit Severide and Kidd — perhaps after she gives birth! — or cross paths with 51 on a call.

Damon did have a bit of a romance with paramedic Lizzy Novak (Jocelyn Hudon), but that never did develop into anything serious, so his absence shouldn’t affect her.

Chicago Fire, Season 14, Fall 2025, Wednesdays, 9/8c, NBC