Charlie Barnett reflected on being written out of NBC’s Chicago Fire at the end of Season 3, saying while he was “really sad at the time” it turned out to be a “blessing in disguise.
“[The show] was a behemoth that I never really saw coming. I was thankful to be a part of it,” Barnett, who portrayed Peter Mills, told Digital Spy. “I really was sad to be let go. It broke me for quite a long time.”
He continued, “Yeah. It was a blessing in disguise, and they all told me that. You never really see that in life, in general. You never see the bad moments becoming the good. It wouldn’t be. It wouldn’t be what it was, I think if you did recognize it for what it is in the moment. So I’m thankful.”
Series executive producer Matt Olmstead said at the time the decision to dismiss Barnett wasn’t made lightly.
“The hardest part of this job is when you feel it’s the right time to make cast changes. It was solely based on bringing in new people for new stories. Otherwise, it turns into a clown car,” Olmstead told TV Guide in 2015. “You have affection and admiration for [your cast], so you keep everybody, but it’s at the detriment of being objective and making some tough calls in terms of storytelling. So, we wanted to shake things up and bring in a new character and we started discussing the idea … and here we are. It was an extremely tough decision to make, but we feel good about it,” he added.
Everything worked out for Barnett who went on to land starring roles in Netflix’s Russian Doll, You, and the mini-series Tales of the City. He was also a series regular in the final season of Arrow for the CW.
Barnett says he keeps in touch with many of his Chicago Fire castmates like David Eigenberg, Joe Minoso, and Monica Raymund who left the series at the end of Season 6.