Chicago Justice: Jon Seda on NBC Cancellation, Return to Chicago PD

Why did Chicago Justice end? Recently, star Jon Seda spoke The Hollywood Reporter about the cancelled NBC series and his return to Chicago PD.

Seda, who plays Detective Antonio Dawson on the cop drama, left mid-way through season four to join the spin-off series Chicago Justice. However, the legal drama was short-lived and NBC cancelled it after only one season.

In the interview, Seda revealed he was hoping for a second season of Chicago Justice:

I was hoping for it to come back and get another shot. We only had 13 episodes, so [it’s] hard to really get the rhythm going with just 13 episodes in. It was kind of thrown all over the place where episodes we shot early appeared in the middle and some we shot late aired first. Yet it was doing pretty well, I think it was averaging 6 million viewers on Sunday. That said, I think had it been given another shot and another season, it would have done better. You never want to see a show fail and not come back. But I don’t think we even look at it as a failure. It just didn’t get a second season, but it did well.”

Later, Seda said he is thankful for the chance to return to Chicago PD, which premieres its fifth season on NBC on September 27th at 10 p.m. ET/PT: 

I was very thankful. If I had to move on, I was going to move on and then I was very thankful for the time that I had. Actors hope to get one year of a show and here I started on Fire and that turned into four years of P.D. and then Justice, so it was a great opportunity, and if that was all it was going to be, I was very happy for that. But for them to come back and really show their support and wanting to have me back, it’s just really incredible. I’m really thankful.”

And how does Antonio re-join the Chicago PD team?

I think they ran through so many different possibilities and it came down to something kind of simple. It’s, like I said earlier, in that line of work, people come and go for whatever reason. There’s a case that the Intelligence team is working on in the first episode where it kind of gets stuck with the suspect and how to get close to a certain suspect and they need someone that can really do great undercover [work], and hasn’t been seen by this suspect, has no connection and Antonio turns out to be that person. That leads to series of events that will land him back with Intelligence.”

What do you think? Do you watch Chicago PD? Are you glad Jon Seda is returning?