Why Lisseth Chavez's Vanessa Rojas Left Chicago P.D.

Many television shows have had to recalibrate things over the last five years, as the reality of producing different series has had to accommodate struggles across the industry. One affected show was "Chicago P.D.," which paused to see what was working and what could be tweaked heading into season 8. Upon the debut of that season, a lot of viewers were surprised to find that Lisseth Chavez was no longer playing Vanessa Rojas in the beloved show. Season 7 presented a lot of challenges for the writing team, and they decided to move forward after trimming the 21st District Intelligence Unit down. So, that left Lisseth Chavez without a place in the show moving forward on NBC.

Chavez's Officer Vanessa Rojas was a fun part of "Chicago P.D.'s" undercover investigators, as she played the role for just a single season on the network. After living in 32 different foster homes, Rojas lived on the streets until she joined the police academy and found her purpose in the Intelligence Section. Many of the proposed storylines for her character were cut short, a tough pill to swallow for the "Chicago P.D." fans out there. It's often the case that these kinds of swaps happen midway through a show's run as the writing team and showrunner try to establish a new baseline for the program after a fast start, and that definitely seems to be the case here.

As sad as this would all seem for Chavez, there was one silver lining for the actress after she was written out of the show. Namely, that she would be hopping over to another beloved program on another network immediately after her work on the season 7 finale of "Chicago P.D." It can be hard to lose a place on such a stable show, and the "One Chicago" universe over on NBC definitely qualifies, but it softens the blow to already have something pretty high-profile lined up.

Season 7 of "Chicago P.D." ended with Rojas helping arrest a gun-runner alongside LaRoyce Hawkins' Kevin Atwater. If it feels like the creative team was running fast to try and tie things up for everyone near the finale, that's because they were. The pandemic forced the people making "Chicago P.D." to hustle while crafting a makeshift finale until they could figure out the next steps, and that would spell the end of Officer Chavez's time with the show. Unfortunately, they took a look at the landscape and decided that they wouldn't need to keep her around for more. But, there was a quick rescue for the detective as The CW's "Legends of Tomorrow" were all too eager to recruit Chavez for their sixth season.

In the beloved Arrowverse program, Chavez played Ezperanza "Spooner" Cruz, who is a paranormal investigator who came aboard the main cast's Waverider ship to help Caity Lotz and Jes Macallan's rag-tag group of DC heroes. Chavez would slot in ahead of The CW show's return in season 6. "Legends of Tomorrow" is a very different show from "Chicago P.D.," however, the ensemble trappings and adventure of the week format help tie them together in practice. Not to mention the fact that by season 6 of "Legends of Tomorrow," the Arrowverse shows were a TV institution for comic book fans and regular broadcast television buffs alike.

"The Legends of Tomorrow" only ran for two more seasons after Chavez joined up with the oddball DC Comics team, but that late period of the show was really fun for most of the actors involved. It became clear near the end that The CW was going to be undergoing changes moving forward, and the creative team used that knowledge as a license to really pursue bold, fun choices with the time they had left. "Legends of Tomorrow" loved time-travel as a kind of constant theme, and things ratcheted up in that late period, so the actors also got to play doppelgangers and take part in some grand storytelling to close the show out.

"Chicago P.D." fans were probably sad about the abrupt exit for Rojas after a season's worth of stories and involvement, but that's how TV goes oftentimes. You have to be ready for whatever, and it's clear that Chavez was prepared to make the jump from a somewhat "serious" crime drama to the kind of comedy-drama that "Legends of Tomorrow" specializes in. You never really know when your name is going to be called, and that willingness to step into something completely different really paid off for the actress. There are rarely times when both sides get the better of a decision to part ways like this, but Chavez's leap to the Arrowverse would definitely count.