Eamonn Walker’s Wallace Boden has been overseeing the firefighters and

paramedics of various firehouse units since Chicago Fire first premiered on

NBC back in 2012. However, the 13th season will shake things up. With

the premiere of Chicago Fire Season 13 getting closer, showrunner Andrea Newman shares with Entertainment Weekly what to expect now that a new chief will be in charge. She also teased that the upcoming season would be a “haunted” season for most characters.

The 13th season of the hit procedural drama will introduce Firehouse 51’s new chief, Dom Pascal (Dermot Mulroney), but that doesn’t mean Boden will be forgotten. The veteran Chicago Fire Department Chief technically raised an array of paramedics and firefighters during his tenure. In the interview with Entertainment Weekly, Newman explained that “Boden raised them,” adding, “[w]hen a new chief starts, everybody’s going to have a different reaction. And some of the reactions are surprising. Boden’s presence is still so much a part of the show, and it always will be, because he was so formative in the way that he put this group together and the way he raised this family up.”

‘Chicago Fire’ Season 13 Is a “Haunted” Season

In the same interview, the showrunner revealed that Season 13 will see most main characters in a gloomy light, especially Taylor Kinney’s Kelly Severide, who found out last season that Michael Bradway’s Jack Damon is his actual younger half-brother. “We kept feeling like this is haunted season 13. It’s kind of like people’s past ghosts coming back. That’s very true for Severide, where he’s worked really hard to put his father in the rearview mirror and become his own firefighter. So to suddenly have Benny’s son, his half-brother, appear in his life, it makes him have to re-explore all of that stuff. So it brings up a lot for Severide and that relationship is complicated and juicy and there’s lots of stuff that will play out between the two of them early on.”

Apart from Kelly Severide, Evan Hawkins (Jimmy Nicholas), Violet Mikami (Hanako Greensmith), and Sam Carver (Jake Lockett) will be just as “haunted.” The showrunner added: “Violet’s haunted by Hawkins and what happened with Hawkins and that relationship. And Carver is haunted just as a soul. So we are mining a bunch of that at the beginning of the season. There’s a lot between the two of them and a lot about the fact that they both bring their own ghosts to the table.”

Who Else Is Returning in ‘Chicago Fire’ Season 13?

Most of the main cast members will return for the highly anticipated 13th season of the fan-favorite series, including Kinney as Severide, Miranda Rae Mayo as Stella Kidd, David Eigenberg as Christopher Herrmann, Christian Stolte as Randall “Mouch” McHolland, Joe Minoso as Joe Cruz, Daniel Kyri as Darren Ritter, and Lockett as Carver. Lockett, who was cast in a recurring role during seasons 11 and 12, has been tapped to be a main cast member for Season 13. Meanwhile, Jocelyn Hudon — who joined last season as a replacement for Kara Killmer’s Sylvie Brett — will be a series regular for Season 13.

Chicago Fire Season 13 premieres on Wednesday, September 25, on NBC. You can catch up on older seasons now on Peacock.