LaRoyce Hawkins Chicago P.D. exit is now set: Hawkins will leave as a series regular after 13 seasons and return in the first two or three episodes of Season 14 to close Kevin Atwater’s storyline. The move ends one of the show’s longest-running roles, with Hawkins having played Atwater since the 2014 series premiere.
Thirteen seasons is a long run in any network drama, and this one lands while Chicago P.D. is still changing shape around its core. Hawkins joins recent departures that include Jesse Lee Soffer and Tracy Spiridakos, which makes his exit less like a one-off and more like another step in a continuing rebuild.
Kevin Atwater since 2014
2014 is the key marker here: Hawkins has been Atwater from the start, so his departure does not just remove a familiar face from Chicago. It forces Chicago P.D. to finish a character arc that has been part of the series identity from day one, instead of letting it drift through another season unchanged.
Season 14 will carry that work early, not late. Hawkins is expected back in the first two or three episodes, which tells viewers the show plans to resolve Atwater’s storyline near the front of the season rather than stretching it out across the year.
A Black cop and chaos
Chicago P.D. is also casting a new series regular, a Black cop who is an agent of chaos. That choice creates a direct handoff problem: the show is replacing an original cast member while building around a new disruptive presence, so the transition will have to do two jobs at once.
Season 13 already showed how fast the ensemble can shift. Toya Turner left ahead of Season 13 after one season as Officer Kiana Cook, while Arienne Mandi joined in Season 13 as Officer Eva Imani. The pattern suggests the series is willing to refresh the Intelligence Unit without waiting for a neat endpoint.
Atwater, Tasha Fox, and Season 14
Season 13 Episode 5 and Episode 11 gave Atwater a personal thread worth closing cleanly. In Season 13 Episode 5, he reconnects with Officer Tasha Fox, who says she is moving to Miami for a new job in a week. In Episode 11, she returns to his door pregnant with their first child.
Fans of Chicago P should expect Season 14 to use those beats as the bridge to Hawkins’s exit. The practical question now is narrow and useful: which episode in Season 14 will be LaRoyce Hawkins’s final appearance? The answer will determine how quickly Chicago P.D. closes the book on Kevin Atwater before the new season settles into its next lineup.
