Joe Miñoso Breaks Silence on ‘Chicago Fire’ Exit, Teases Emotional Final Cruz Episode
Joe Miñoso is opening up about his upcoming departure from Chicago Fire.
The 48-year-old actor has played Cruz for 300 episodes, since the long-running NBC show’s first season and fans were shocked to learn about his exit.
Cruz suffered from a serious injury from a significant warehouse fire that carried over from the end of season 14 into the start of season 15. As the latest season kicked off, viewers learned the firefighter had fractured his spine and left him unable to continue on at Firehouse 51.
What did Joe Miñoso say about his upcoming Chicago Fire exit?
Joe spoke with TV Insider in a new interview and shared his initial reaction to learning about his character’s injury was “shock” and revealed it was “hard to hear” that he would be leaving after such a long tenure.
I remember I was sitting in the producers’ office and I was staring at all of the headshots in the room, and I just kept looking at my picture and recognizing that it would no longer be in the mix of the ensemble [with my exit]. And it was hard to hear at first, but at the same time, I really understood it. When you spend this much time, there are some firefighters that get maybe 20 years out of a career, and I’m five short of that. So I feel like I might as well have gone through the actual service.
He had some input on Cruz’s exit arc
The actor also shared that he had “some conversations” with the writing team to help shape Cruz’s exit arc.
“I referenced some things that maybe some of them may have not considered or thought about because they just weren’t here at the very beginning, and so there’s just a lot of storyline that can get slipped under the rug and not remembered,” he said.
Joe continued, “I brought up a couple of ideas and they were always so receptive to the conversations. Victor [Teran] has been just a phenomenal showrunner.”
What to expect from his final episode
He also teased what people can expect from the emotional farewell, notably mentioning a scene he shares with Severide (Taylor Kinney).
There’s a very important scene between Severide and Cruz that was actually the very last scene that we shot for the episode, or at least for the Cruz character. And it was incredible. It was highly emotional. There were a lot of tears, and it was really wonderful to get to actually do that scene with Taylor because it was something that we don’t do often on our show. Cruz is always there, he’s always got Severide’s back, and that doesn’t change necessarily, but you just don’t get to see this specific kind of moment between those two characters, I think, ever on the show. So it was really, really quite special.
He added that the episode is “all wrapped in the idea of family.”
Joe will be back later this season in a new role
Even though Cruz isn’t coming back, Joe will still be around as he is directing an episode later this season!
His final episode will be the 300th episode airing on Wednesday, November 4, 2026.
Posted To:Chicago Fire Joe Minoso
