Laroyce Hawkins has finished filming his final episode of Chicago P.D., closing out a 13-season run on the drama after a farewell that stretched from August 14 into August 15. Sheila R. Brown posted that Hawkins wrapped the day before and wrote that he had put in 13 seasons on the show, while castmate Marina Squerciati later shared photos from the send-off.
That is the reason Hawkins is back in the news now. Chicago P.D. returns for its 14th season on Wednesday, October 7, and Hawkins is only coming back for a couple of episodes to finish Officer Kevin Atwater's storyline. The timing gives fans a narrow window before the season premiere and makes his final stretch one of the show's biggest immediate storylines.
The send-off itself looked like a full cast event. Squerciati's photos showed Hawkins alongside Jason Beghe, Jesse Lee Soffer, Tracy Spiridakos, Miranda Rae Mayo, Arienne Mandi and Benjamin Levy Aguilar, and she described the moment as sending off one of the best. Brown, in a separate post, said Hawkins had been celebrated all day and night and called out the work that carried him through 13 seasons.
The unresolved part is how Chicago P.D. will actually write Officer Kevin Atwater out. Hawkins was first announced on July 2 as leaving in Season 14, and at that point he was said to be in two or three episodes. The latest reporting points to two, not three, which narrows the exit and suggests the show has already moved past the longer version of his farewell run.
What comes next is less about whether Hawkins will appear and more about what the show chooses to do with Atwater before he goes. It seems likely the character will not be killed off, and the most immediate clue is that he is about to become a father with fellow officer Tasha Fox. However Chicago P.D. handles that turn, Hawkins' final on-screen chapter is now set to arrive during a short run that ends before the season settles in.
