Hanako Greensmith will be staying on Chicago Fire. The NBC series announced Friday via TVLine that the actress has been promoted from recurring player to main cast member for the upcoming Chicago Fire season 10, which probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise to One Chicago viewers.
Greensmith’s character, paramedic Violet Mikami, made her first appearances during season 8 as the ex-girlfriend of and foil to Blake Gallo (Alberto Rosende). But the character was drafted into the Firehouse 51 ranks last season when Adriyan Rae, who portrayed paramedic Gianna Mackey, opted to leave the series after just a handful of episodes for personal reasons. Violet replaced Mackey on Ambulance 61 and stayed there for the rest of season 9.
Thus it made sense that the series would at least consider promoting Greensmith to a series regular role for the upcoming season. Violet was still part of the team in the season 9 finale, and the season 10 premiere will likely pick up shortly thereafter, since there’s a cliffhanger to be resolved—so it would have made much less sense for her not to stick around. Greensmith also displayed plenty of chemistry with Rosende and with Kara Killmer, who plays Violet’s partner Sylvie Brett, so she’d demonstrated that she was a fit for a permanent role.
While the whole One Chicago universe has had plenty of recurring cast members, they don’t always make the leap to being series regulars. Some do; actors like Chicago Med‘s Dominic Rains and Fire‘s Miranda Rae Mayo were billed as recurring but quickly became main cast. Others, like Fire alums Kamal Angelo Bolden and Warren Christie, don’t stick around for various reasons. So for Greensmith to get the call-up is a vote of confidence on the part of Chicago Fire‘s producers, and means that hopefully things will settle down on Ambulance 61 for at least the immediate future.
That’s something that’s really important for the series to keep growing as it approaches its 200th episode. The behind-the-scenes changes—Rae’s departure and the show’s choice not to bring Annie Ilonzeh back as Emily Foster after season 7—have meant that the paramedic side has looked like a revolving door when it used to be very consistent with Monica Raymund there to anchor 61 for six seasons. A permanent partnership (as one can only hope Greensmith stays around for more than season 10) would bring stability and allow for more growth, since the writers can now dig deeper into Violet instead of having to keep introducing and establishing new paramedics.
Plus, will Violet and Gallo rekindle their romance, as seemed to be indicated by the kiss they shared at the end of season 9? We’ll have to keep watching and find out when the series returns this fall.
Chicago Fire airs Wednesdays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.
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