Jesse Lee Soffer will direct the second episode of Chicago P.D. season 14, and that puts a possible exit point for LaRoyce Hawkins right next to the season’s first run of episodes. Hawkins has played Officer Kevin Atwater for 13 seasons, so the timing gives this early stretch real weight.
Chicago P.D. season 14 premieres Wednesday, October 7, at 10/9c on NBC, and Soffer’s return marks his fourth episode as a director on the show. LaRoyce Hawkins exits Chicago P.D. after 13 seasons in Season 14 gives the broader setup, but the practical takeaway is narrower: the show is lining up a transition inside the first two episodes rather than holding the shift for later in the run.
One episode, two exits
NBC used a similar structure last fall with Chicago Fire star Daniel Kyri, whose exit came in the second episode and served as his final appearance in the role of Darren Ritter. That comparison matters because it shows the network has already leaned on an early-season exit pattern when a regular is leaving, and Chicago P.D. now appears to be following the same template.
Reports suggest Hawkins will only appear in a few episodes at the beginning of the season, which keeps the second episode in play as a possible cutoff. Jesse Lee Soffer’s involvement adds another layer, because a director’s episode can become a clean structural point for a departure when a series wants to move a character out before the season settles into its long arc.
LaRoyce Hawkins and Atwater
Hawkins’ early-season exit would close a 13-season run as Officer Kevin Atwater, one of the show’s longest-running regular roles. That is not a routine cast adjustment; it changes the lineup in a way viewers will notice immediately because Atwater has been part of the show’s core identity for more than a decade.
Will LaRoyce Hawkins leave after the second episode of Chicago P.D. season 14? That is the point the current setup still does not settle, even though the episode count around his departure points hard toward the opening stretch. If you are tracking the series for the next shift in the cast, the first two episodes now carry the most information about how the season will begin and where Atwater’s run ends.
