‘Chicago P.D.’ Boss Speaks out After Alvin Olinsky’s Shocking Death

Alvin Olinsky has been killed, but the Chicago P.D. will go on. The NBC crime drama’s fifth season gave fans one of the biggest twists in its runs after Alvin Olinsky (Elias Koteas) died after being stabbed in prison.

The decision to kill off the character was one made in the writer’s room, Chicago P.D. showrunner Rick Eid told Us Weekly, saying the death had to happen in order to move the story forward.

“It just evolved from a story telling perspective. Once we started down the road of Woods (Mykelti Williamson) and Voight (Jason Beghe) going at each other, Bingham’s body being recovered and Olinsky’s DNA being found on that body, we started playing it out to its creative, dramatic conclusion, it just felt like an interesting way to wrap up that storyline,” Eid says. “I think the real creative idea behind it all was that we felt like Voight killing Bingham needed to ultimately, cost him something. There needed to be a consequence to what he did. We thought that possibly losing his best friend became this interesting idea that we all graduated toward. We could see this long arc playing out in that direction.”

In a conversation with Eid, he revealed telling Koteas was “brutal”.

“…It was a hard decision because we all really liked it creatively – it just felt like there was honesty to the story telling that we all got excited about – then came the practical reality of ‘Wait, he’s one of our favorite characters and one of our favorite actors and favorite people in real life,’” Eid said. “All that stuff was just really hard. I think we finally all got on the same page and said, ‘Wow we’re really gonna do this,’ probably a week before we started shooting that episode. It was truly just one of those things that just evolved from storytelling and at the end of 20 ‘What If’s,’ everybody kept coming back to this idea of how this would impact Voight.”

As far as the way the show delivered the news of Olinsky’s death to Voight, Eid reveals the decision was made by Koteas.

“When we talked about everything, he was really protective of his character and wanted me to be protective of his character and death and how he went out. He said that Olinsky wasn’t a sentimental character, he didn’t want his death to be overly sentimental in the show…” Eid said. “He’s a man from the streets, kind of, and his character lived that way and died that way. It felt real, it felt honest. People don’t always die the way you want them to at the time you want them to. You don’t always get these moments of goodbyes. That felt like Alvin Olinsky.”

As far as what comes next, Eid admitted he is still in the process of digesting Olinsky’s death himself.

“The short answer is I’m not sure where we’re going to pick up and kick off season 6,” Eid said.

Chicago P.D. is expected to return for its sixth season in fall 2018.