Chicago Med almost ended Dr. Dean Archer’s time on the show in a very dark way. The character joined the show in Season 6, played by veteran actor Steven Weber.
In a new interview, Weber spoke about how his character wasn’t intended to make it. Apparently, Archer was only supposed to be there for four or five episodes.
Five seasons after he debuted, it’s fun to hear Weber speak about how he got the part and what happened after that.
The death of Dr. Dean Archer on Chicago Med
“The character of Dean Archer was a guy who was a Naval surgeon, who had been to Afghanistan, had been wounded, had PTSD, and in fact, at the end of this arc was going to do some self-harm. He was not good up here,” Steven Weber told the One Chicago podcast.
“He was suffering and had untreated trauma. And at the end of this guy’s story, he was not gonna make it. So I was kind of excited about that character, that was dark and interesting, and I was going to apply some things that I’d known, I was going to do some research and do what I thought was going to be just a good, nice little gig,” the former Wings star added.
Indeed, Archer struggled when he first showed up at Med, compounded by suspicions of his former co-worker, Dr. Ethan Choi (Brian Tee).
Whether it was the news that people were leaving the Chicago Med cast or that the producers and writers really liked Archer as a character, they shifted away from the original plans. And those plans were pretty dark.
From a ‘cranky guy’ to something more?
When the podcast host suggested that Archer was “a bit of a cranky guy with no heart, a little edgy,” Weber took it one step further.
“It wasn’t even so much cranky. Bordered on sociopath. He was doing a couple of things that now, basically in the canon of the show, we’ve sort of conveniently forgot about. I mean, at one point, I think I took out some guy’s kidney without his approval. Like, I sedated him, pulled it out. It was really dark, and that’s why he was gonna kind of end,” he elaborated.
And there you have it. Through self-harm, Archer nearly got taken out by the writers, but, instead, the character is a core component of the show all these years later.
Steven Weber reveals why he thinks Archer stuck around
“I think they decided that this character had more depth and appeal and possibilities beyond where they were gonna take him. And so after that, they decided not to end the character, and they brought me back the next season for a number of shows. And then from there, it sort of got longer,” Weber added during his interview.
What do you think about it all? Did the Chicago Med team make a good choice by keeping Steven Weber around? How do you feel about that potential dark exit for Dr. Dean Archer?
Below is the full interview. In it, Steven Weber answers even more questions and speaks about his future on the show. Things could get messy with Dr. Hannah Asher (played by Jessy Schram), who is carrying Archer’s baby.
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