EXCLUSIVE: When NBC’s Chicago Med returns this fall for its 11th season, it will be without one of its three remaining original cast members. Marlyne Barrett, who has played doting yet no-nonsense ER nurse Maggie Lockwood since the show’s 2015 launch, is stepping back from the medical drama for personal reasons, sources tell Deadline.
This is envisioned as a temporary leave, and the hope is for her to return at some point, I hear.
As Deadline reported in June, the other two Chicago Med original cast members — series stars S. Epatha Merkerson (Sharon Goodwin) and Oliver Platt (Daniel Charles) — are set to come back after their options for the 2025-26 season were picked up. And just this week, Deadline broke the news that fellow OG Nick Gehlfuss, who left after eight seasons, will make a return this season as a guest star, reprising his role as Dr. Will Halstead.
Over the years, Barrett’s Charge Nurse Maggie has become the eyes, ears and heart of Gaffney Medical’s Emergency Department, endlessly dedicated to her position and loyal to all the physicians around her. Maggie’s major Season 10 storyline involved the tense nursing union negotiations at the hospital, which culminated in a sick-out.
In Season 5, Maggie was diagnosed with cancer and eventually went into remission. Barrett announced her real-life diagnosis of uterine and ovarian cancer in July 2022. In September 2024, the actress revealed that she was in full remission.
Chicago Med, from Wolf Entertainment and Universal Television, is executive produced by Dick Wolf, Allen MacDonald, Stephen Hootstein and Peter Jankowski.
The three One Chicago dramas kick off their new seasons October 1, with Chicago Med leading the charge at 8 p.m.
