Joe Minoso Says Cruz Won’t Come Out ‘Unscathed’ in Chicago Fire Return

Joe Miñoso warned that his Chicago Fire character, Joe Cruz, “will not be unscathed” after his run-in with Junior in the show’s midseason premiere.

“He’s not really thinking much about himself,” Miñoso, 46, exclusively told Us Weekly on Tuesday, January 7, of Cruz’s mental state going into the next two episodes. “I think he’s more concerned about his brother, and especially his wife and kids, which is something that did not exist when this problem first reared its ugly head.”

During season 1 of Chicago Fire, Cruz left a gang leader named Flaco to die in a fire. The incident came back to haunt the firefighter during the season 12 midseason finale, which aired in November 2024, when Cruz found a bullet urn in his locker. The pendant was full of cremated remains.

Cruz soon learned that Flaco’s cousin, Junior (Richard Cabral), was out of jail and knew what he did. When the show picks up on Wednesday, January 8, Cruz will come face-to-face with Junior and must decide how to keep himself — and his brother, Leon (Jeff Lima), who was previously pulled in by the gang — safe.

“Junior definitely wants Cruz’s help in some nefarious activities,” Miñoso revealed, noting that Cruz has to “make a decision as to whether or not he wants to get himself involved in that.”

The actor teased that the “stakes are so much higher” this time around because Cruz is focused on finding a solution that gets the “problem away from [his] family.”

Miñoso said that viewers will see Cruz “fighting” to do just that in Wednesday’s episode, with the “ramifications” of his choices coming to light one week later.

The One Chicago star noted that despite Cruz’s best efforts to be his own hero, he will have help from both his biological brother and his brothers at Firehouse 51.

“For the first time, you’re gonna see Cruz lean on Leon,” Miñoso explained. “There’s been so much of Cruz sort of holding up and being the big shoulders in that relationship. I think we’re gonna see a little bit of a role reversal there when it comes to those two brothers.”

Leon won’t be the only one who has Cruz’s back moving forward. His boss Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) will insert himself into the mess as well.

“I will say that something goes down that makes it impossible to avoid — or not notice — that something’s going on with Cruz,” Miñoso told Us. “And especially since our good friend Severide is so incredibly intuitive and constantly sniffing around for stuff.”

He said that the fear of Cruz’s secret coming to light is going to affect his “work as a firefighter on the job” and his “relationship between him and some of the squad members,” which is where Severide comes into play.

Miñoso noted that Cruz is “really good at feeling very guilty about letting people down” and Severide is at the top of his list of people he doesn’t want to disappoint. (In recent seasons, Severide has named Cruz acting lieutenant when he’s out on arson cases.)

“He does not want to ruin that level of responsibility,” the actor said, confessing, “It’s gonna be a hard road to navigate for Cruz, especially with Severide and [Dermot Mulroney‘s character Chief] Pascal [watching].”

Miñoso hinted that the drama with Junior will be his first real introduction to the new chief on a personal level, which might not be a good thing.

“[This] is a really bad first impression,” he said. “So we’re hoping that we can figure out a way to get to a better place with Pascal after the end of this whole story line.”

Chicago Fire airs on NBC Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET.