‘Chicago Fire’: Christian Stolte and EP Andrea Newman Preview Season 14 Premiere’s ‘High Stakes’ (Exclusive)

The Season 14 premiere of Chicago Fire is finally this week, and star Christian Stolte and executive producer Andrea Newman spoke to PopCulture.com about what’s going down at 51.

In “Kicking Down Doors,” airing on Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET on NBC, “A new face at Firehouse 51 causes tension.”

“Rising chaos in the city brings new challenges to the team. Herrmann stalls on plans of relinquishing his office to Mouch,” the logline continues. There will be a lot coming to 51, including budget cuts that the entire CFD is dealing with. Newman told PopCulture it’s “gonna be a real challenge.”

“And, obviously, we’re playing off real-world stuff and budget cuts and what happens when the cuts hit you in a way and you’re a first responder and it’s life and death,” she explained. “It’s not just like, ‘Oh, I don’t have as many pencils and pens as I want.’ It’s like, literally, we don’t have the tools we need or the amount of people we need to save lives. So it just ratchets up the stakes. It’s like you have to, as Pascal says in the beginning, the best of the best have to rise to the occasion.”

“You gotta take it up a notch when this kind of thing happens,” Newman continued. “There’s no other choice. What are you gonna do? This is it. So their backs are against the wall at the beginning of the season, for sure. And they’ll have more challenges. Somehow, things will get even crazier than they were before. The stakes are high, and they’ve gotta step up with fewer people and fewer resources and somehow keep saving the day and saving lives.”

Elsewhere, Fire will be down two regular firefighters, as both Jake Lockett and Daniel Kyri are departing. Although fans saw the last of Lockett’s Sam Carver in the Season 13 finale, Kyri is appearing returning for a limited time as Darren Ritter to wrap up his storyline. Meanwhile, the show is bringing on someone new, played by The Good Doctor’s Brandon Larracuente.

“We’re really excited about the character Sal,” Newman said. “He’s coming in under mysterious circumstances. We’re not sure exactly what’s behind the fact that he’s gotta be there. He’s gotta be at 51 specifically. There’s alot to unheal there. And he’s a very interesting guy with a very rich family backstory that will end up being a part of the Firehouse story, too. So it’s fun to bring him in, and it’s fun that Brandon is a fantastic actor, and the character of Sal is a new flavor and a new character than we’ve seen before.”

“We’ve had a lot of new people come in,” she shared. “We’ve had Kidd face a lot of challenges with tricky newcomers under her command, but this is gonna be a whole different kind of experience for her. So she’s gotta evolve to step up and be able to lead him, and he’s gotta change to be able to work under her. So there’s gonna be a lot of push and pull there, but they’ll challenge each other in really fun ways.”

Speaking of Kidd, she and Severide got some very exciting news in the Season 13 finale, and it’s that they are expecting. The news was certainly needed after they went through heartbreak when an adoption fell through. But even so, there may still be some obstacles for the couple as they prepare for parenthood.

“I think it’s something that they’ve been talking about for a while, praying for a while,” Newman explained. “Obviously, Kidd is the one who had more issues about it. Just as a female firefighter, it’s a very different experience for a male firefighter to become a parent. So there’s challenges in store, obviously, different for Kidd than for Severide, but they’ve got to come together and navigate that. And parenting as a first responder, I mean, I think about this all the time.”

“As a regular parent, you leave and you worry about what your day will look like, that might affect getting home a little later,” she continued. “They gotta worry about if they’re gonna die on the job as a parent. So it’s a different measure of emotions and stakes as a first responder parent, so they’re gonna have to be navigating that.”

As for Mouch, just because he’s finally made Lieutenant doesn’t mean that the change is coming easily. Hermann stepped down so his friend can step up, and it’s harder than it looks. Stolte shared that it was a “pleasant surprise” that the transition was not smooth or simple.

“It’s problematic. It’s thorny. It’s complicated, and I like that part of it,” he said. “The way we left things, it felt like, ‘Oh, that’s a tidy little bow to wrap this up in.’ But at the same time, it was like, ‘No. It is not.’ And we’re gonna find out next season when this actually has to play out. We’re gonna find out it is not uncomplicated, and that’s what I love about it. There’s a lot of strands of this to be picked at to sort out and that’s what we’re doing.”

“Yeah. There’s guilt to carry, and all of a sudden, Hermann is taking a pay cut as well as a rent cut, and how that affects that friendship dynamic,” Newman added.

Chicago Fire fans are in for a packed premiere, and there is no telling what will happen. Be sure to tune in on Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET on NBC to see how it all goes down.