Nick Gehlfuss’ Will Halstead and Jessy Schram’s Hannah Asher have a complicated relationship – but also one that looks to be at the center of the emotional drive for Chicago Med going into the show’s eight season. Fangirlish had a chance to talk to Gehlfuss and Schram about the show, the trajectories for both Will and Hannah going forward, and whether there is a possibility for a rekindled romance, and the answers aren’t exactly surprising, but they’re still fun for long-time fans.
Because yes, there might be romance on the horizon. But don’t expect it too son. Gehlfuss promised that, for now, “they’re doing what they set out to do, which is start over and basically wipe the slate clean.” And that means trying “not to hold anything against one another given what has happened in the past and personally just try not to compete on any level, as far as you’ve made my life crazy difficult.”
Of course, because this is Chicago Med, it gets hard to maintain that space right away, with Hannah suffering from smoke inhalation complications from the fire, which is stirring all of Will’s guilt and their past.
“For now they’re keeping healthy boundaries in complicated situations.” Schram teased, “But because of the fact that they have such a deep connection and such turmoil within their past, really, things can go anywhere.” But, “it is rooted in a relationship. We’re just discovering where that relationship goes, but the bond that they share will always be bubbling under the surface. You can’t avoid it.”
But first, they have to deal with other things separately – Hannah, with her past, Will, with his best (or worst) impulses. We’ve seen Hannah “deal with the complications of her past” in many different ways, and in the third episode of Season 8, titled “Winning the Battle, but Still Losing the War,” Dr. Choi will treat a patient from Hannah’s past, which will be another chance for her to reexamine the person she used to be, and how that person ties into who she is today. But in the Season 8 premiere, Hannah is still mostly dealing with complications from the fire – and her relationship with Will.
And Will, well, he always says he’s not going to get invested, but that never really lasts. Gehlfuss agreed with this appreciation. “As much as Will works on trying to leave his personal stuff aside and not intervene in his work, it doesn’t work out. And you can count on that with Will.”
But Gehlfuss doesn’t see it as a bad thing, or at least not completely. “I think that’s wonderfully human, in a way. He’s flawed in that sense.” But Gehlfuss also said that he thought Will was getting better at it. And as for how that translates to his relationship with Hannah. “Look, they’ve agreed to start over, but can you really start over is the question, especially with that much of history and the dynamic of their history.”
So yeah, “I don’t think that’s going to work out as well as they think that it’s going to.” Gehlfuss admitted. “And it’s going to be fun to explore those moments where they are trying to do it, but they can’t.”
There’s one particular moment Gehlfuss was excited for people to see that he couldn’t go into detail about, but that he shared was “extremely vulnerable,” and involved Will “learning a lesson” that he thinks “sets in motion a whole movement for Will forward.” A movement that will probably put him on a collision course with Hannah. And, can we hope, one that allows him to see his brother before Jay Halstead says goodbye to Chicago P.D.?
One can dream.
Chicago Med airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on NBC.
