WARNING: The following article contains spoilers about the season 8 premiere of Chicago Fire.

Did someone leave the faucet running at Firehouse 51 or is that our tear duct?

After an incident in season 7 that put literally every major character in Chicago Fire in danger, the mattress factory fire was finally put out in the season 8 premiere – but not without a in the original 51 players.

Brian Zvonecek, also known as Otis, suffered severe burns in the fire and died shortly after arriving at the hospital. And thus, original cast member Yuriy Sardarov left the series.

Chicago PD and Chicago Med Lose to major players, including Jon Seda and Colin Donnell
Somehow through our tears, we managed to get executive producer Derek Haas on the phone to talk about Otis’s death, how Sardarov handled the bad news, and what this will mean for with his best friend and roommate Joe Cruz (Joe Minoso) and the rest of the future firehouse.

EVERYONE: When preparing for last season’s finale, did you know who was going to make it through or what were the deciding factors for you guys as far as the contracts that were being negotiated, etc.?
DEREK HAAS: It’s not about contract negotiations but we don’t know what we’re going to do. We just wanted to do one of those finales where we put all the longtime characters in danger. We went out to play with the very old boiler because it was about to explode – and that’s what we thought. I finished the last part and decided, “We’re going to put this down and not think about it for a few months until we get back together. And then we’ll come up with something nice to bring it back.” But of course I couldn’t wait after [the finale] aired. [The team] all picked up the phone and I said, “We can’t pull the rug out from under everyone anymore. There must be some teeth in the program. So let’s really look at who we can kill.” That’s how it started.

Have you ever considered killing off more than one character?
We talked about Ritter but in the end we felt like he was just on the show. It won’t have the same effect. We like everyone so it’s difficult, but we really like him as a new character, a fresh voice on the show. And so we just started looking at the list and when we got to Otis, we thought, “Okay, this is going to have a lot of impact because he’s an original actor. He lives with Cruz and Brett, he stays in Casey’s truck. He is co-owner of Molly’s with Hermann.

How did Sardarov receive this news?
I’ve known Yuriy since he was a college student in Michigan. We did a movie together before Chicago Fire and it’s been amazing watching him grow into the actor he is. I called him [to tell him], and as you can imagine, he’s extremely honorable and a great guy. So it was hard to make that decision, but I knew it was right for the show. I tried to make it non-nonsense. Again, I wasn’t worried about Yuriy because I just knew he was going to do great things and I had to say, “Oh, yeah, he started with Chicago Fire. I love watching all of our actors develop other things after they leave our show. I’m like a proud dad; I can see these things happen.”
How long did you wait to tell the rest of the members?
I let Yury do it because he wanted to tell the rest of the members. And then, over the summer, I texted or talked to most of them. Part of my request to Yury was to come back and do the first episode. Like, “By the way, we’re going to clear your name. We will make a heroic ending for your character. You will actually save the rest of the fire station. But in doing so, you know, giving, sacrificing your own life and I also need you back and so on. in the first episode. Within 30 seconds, Yuriy said: “I’m working on it.” Yes, he’s amazing.

What was it like filming his emotional final scenes?
I was there dealing with all the insides of the fire and stuff when the paramedics opened Otis’ shirt and Cruz saw for the first time that this was different, Otis wasn’t going to survive this. That was the look on Cruz’s face. Then he lets out that haunting howl in the back of the ambulance – I teared up watching it. I didn’t go to see the hospital scene, but I know everyone stood up and applauded him for it.