World News – CA – Chicago Med showrunners discuss the future of the hospital’s sixth season

CHICAGO MED – “Do you know the way home?” Episode 603 – Pictured: (lr) Oliver Platt as Daniel Charles, Brian Tee as Ethan Choi, Yaya DeCosta as April Sexton – (Photo by: Elizabeth Sisson / NBC)

Chicago Med showrunners and executive producers Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider faced the biggest challenge of the new One Chicago season by bringing the COVID-19 pandemic into medical both on and off screen Have drama involved

Ahead of the series’ spring premiere tonight, the duo spoke to One Chicago Center about the process of tackling such a critical issue – and what the ongoing pandemic means for the rest of season six

They also talked about some of the biggest story developments this season, including Dr Will Halstead’s (Nick Gehlfuss) future as he conducts a clinical trial starting this week

Look ahead before Chicago Med airs at 8:00 p.m. ET / PT on NBC SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers for the two episodes that have already aired If it doesn’t catch you, do so here

One Chicago Center: We talked about the COVID-19 situation at the beginning of season six of Chicago Med, but what was it like for you to continue dealing with the issue since the pandemic is still on as you write?

Andrew Schneider: It was something that we had to include in order to be a contemporary medical show. One of the big challenges was guessing the state the country might be in as there is of course a lag between developments of a script and the broadcast of an episode there

When we started this development process in May, we didn’t know if the country would still be in trouble, what the problems would be. Unfortunately, the country is still in dire condition so it’s the [COVID-19] -History that we had developed unfortunately didn’t really influence

Diane Frolov: We had a big learning curve this year because this was something completely new to humanity.We spent a lot of time talking to doctors like Andy said to foresee what was going to happen and to get around all the logs learning that had to be in place, which was very different, and the logs in real life also affect our storytelling as we can’t have that many people in a scene, we can’t have big revenue, you can’t have a lot of people have to wait in the waiting room

So it was not just the disease itself, but also the protocols that changed our storytelling

OCC: You made a surprising but interesting decision in the last episode, Dr Ethan Choi (Brian Tee) as ED chief, what Chicago Med can do, which the other One Chicago series can’t necessarily do. Why did you want a new ED chief and why was it Choi?

AS: With Dr Lanik said he wanted to stop being boss We felt that this would reflect the feeling of being overwhelmed that so many doctors and nurses experienced during the pandemic.It gave us an organic way to make him leave his position.He left his position as boss and returned, just to be a trauma surgeon

And then Ethan seemed like the natural choice, as Goodwin explained, given his military background, knowledge of chain of command and hierarchy, organizational skills

DF: Even as writers, we always look at which person can cause us the most conflict. And so Ethan knew we’d stick to the rules more, and that’s going to mess more human feathers than saying Will probably would Let things fly

OCC: Speaking of Will, his story begins with clinical trials this week This is the first time we’ve really seen that part of medicine featured in the series. What can we expect from this plot because there are many gray areas in this regard?

DF: We’ve talked about this for years, but we’ve never done a large clinical trial like this one, and it really will stretch through the rest of the season

AS: It’s the Will Halstead story. It’s about this guy who has a certain passion and tendency to break rules in a world where the rules are very strict. He’s still Will Halstead, and he will cause him some problems

DF: And the ethics, the business side, the conflicts with medicine – people who are actually trying to make people healthy while also running a process – are the conflicts that we will investigate through Will

OCC: You’ve invested in Will and Natalie Manning’s (Torrey DeVitto) relationship for years, and had some of your storylines together.The two are pretty much separated now How was that transition creative for Chicago Med?

AS: I wouldn’t say so soon. As the season progresses, Natalie’s own story and Will will converge in a very dramatic way

DF: But on the other hand, it has given us other ways to tell stories. She can interact with other doctors, which also gives us more opportunities for storytelling

OCC: The new season has also given you several options, Dr Charles, who was cause for concern when Chicago Med stopped looking at psychiatric storylines, how did that work out in season 6?

DF: That’s because of the pandemic. So many health care workers are overwhelmed, and so we set up at the beginning that Goodwin would like him to report to the staff. All of the emotional tendencies our characters are having right now are caused by the Pandemic and the work they have to do compounded: Ethan, in being the boss in a very difficult situation, we are going to learn some things about Maggie that we have never learned before Everyone will have a session with Dr Charles who will help us reveal these characters more

OCC: Last but not least, we will learn more about Marcel’s backstory over the next few weeks. Can we say something about this or something else that may be revisited?

DF: We had this backstory for him from the start.There were a couple of small changes we made along the way, but essentially it was his backstory.It really was a question of when do we get it out, when do we get it reveal But that was a big part of the authors’ debate

We didn’t want to introduce a new character with lots of arrows pointing at the character: “This is our new character” We wanted to calm him down that way, so he got put on the show before you even noticed it

AS: Goodwin’s son Michael, who is a medical representative, will be back and we will be investigating the mother-son relationship between these two

DF: It is important that Goodwin will be back as well. She will be back in the hospital in person for the fourth episode

The latest spoilers and news from Sept. For the season of Chicago Med and more information about the entire series, see the Chicago Med category at One Chicago Center

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