Chicago PD is one of the successful spin-offs of Chicago Fire. A couple of the characters even appeared in the first season of the firefighter drama, and Jon Seda’ Antonio Dawson was one of them.
As much as Dawson didn’t want to work with Voight, he decided that he would join Intelligence. However, he would later go off to work with the justice side of things in Chicago Justice. When that series was canceled after one season, Seda went back to Chicago PD for a short while.
Much of Antonio’s exit was handled off-screen. He relapsed into a drug addiction during the sixth season of the cop drama and then resigned and went to rehab in between the seasons. We got an update in Fire from Gabi Dawson, who said that her brother went to Puerto Rico and is now in the Bahamas helping with the response team.
Could Antonio Dawson return in Chicago PD Season 12?
Intelligence has changed considerably in recent years. With Upton’s exit at the end of Season 11, there are no detectives in the team anymore. It could be time for Dawson to return, getting his badge and gun back and coming back to Intelligence.
This is much easier said than done, of course. It’s not like he can just waltz back into the job that he once had. He would need to go back through some testing requirements, and that’s even if the force thinks that he is suitable for the job anymore.
Of course, bringing Dawson back doesn’t mean that he needs to rejoin Intelligence. He could work as a private detective that ends up working with Intelligence now and then. Maybe he just comes back for an episode to catch up with everyone and see how they’re doing, sharing his own update about how he’s doing.
At the time of Dawson’s exit, only Voight knew what he was going through. It’s unclear just how much the rest of Intelligence learned, but it’s possible that they just have their suspicions. Voight isn’t one for airing other people’s dirty laundry. So, we could see him turn back up with some sort of explanation for the team to finally give them some sort of closure.
Chicago PD Season 12 would be a good time to do that. There’s been a lot of change in the last two seasons. It would be nice to have something familiar to ground us as Intelligence welcomes in a new team member.