Chicago Med Season 9: Jessy Schram on Cast Shake-Ups and Welcoming New Faces

When Season 9 of Chicago Med returns Jan. 17, Gaffney Medical Center will be looking a little different following several cast departures — most notably Nick Gehlfuss' Dr. Will Halstead, who resigned to save the hospital, and Brian Tee's Dr. Ethan Choi, who reunited with April and opened a mobile clinic helping the underserved. Even with the changes, there's a lot to look forward to for the Med cast, who are itching to return to the Windy City at the end of the month. 

"I go back in a week and a half, and we hit the ground running," Jessy Schram, who plays Dr. Hannah Asher on the NBC medical drama, confirmed to TV Guide at Hallmark Channel's "Countdown to Christmas" event on Nov. 15.

The actress revealed that once the SAG-AFTRA strike ended on Nov. 9, she received an email "three minutes" later saying it was time to get back to work. Schram said she and her castmates were given a heads up three weeks earlier, outlining every possible back-to-work timeline should the strike resolve. 

"Whenever you have a break, you have a little bit of fear, like, 'Do I even know how to act?,'" the Mystic Christmas star said. "We were definitely in a swing with the medical jargon and what we were doing. I'm sure we'll be a little rusty, but everybody is very lucky that we all get to go back. We might have some bumps and bruises in the beginning, but I know we'll find our footing really quickly."

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The writers' room opened back up last month following the end of the WGA strike, and Schram shared the only intel she knew of at the moment regarding the upcoming season. 

"I was told that we're going to be having some new faces coming through the hospital, whether it be for short stints or bigger stints," she revealed. "The writers strike only ended shortly before the actors strike, so I'm completely in the dark as to where the season is going to be right now."

"I think it will be nice to have some new faces. We'll definitely have some voids from Brian Tee and Nick Gehlfuss being gone, and they definitely will be sorely missed. But I think it will be very fun to see where the dynamics are," Schram said, specifically "what happened with Archer's issue with his kidneys, what's happened with different relationships."

And the fate of Gaffney is up in the air following the Season 8 finale after hospital owner Jack Dayton (Sasha Roiz) intended to sell his shares. "The hospital left off in a really dire place of not knowing who's going to own it next, so I'm really curious to see who's stepping up. Who's stepping in?" asked Schram, who will be releasing holiday music the first week of December. "If we have new characters there, or if some of our OGs are going to be taking over."

If she had her pick for who could be the new hospital boss, it's S. Epatha Merkerson's Sharon Goodwin. "Let's have S. Epatha take over," Schram declared. "Like, let's be real. That's who I want to take over; Ms. Sharon Goodwin would be the best case scenario for everybody. She has the heart and an iron fist."

Chicago Med premieres Wednesday, Jan. 17 at 8/7c on NBC.