'Chicago Fire' star explains why he made the 'difficult decision' to leave the series after 10 seasons

• 'Chicago Fire' star Jesse Spencer left the show after 10 years and 200 episodes during Wednesday night's episode.
• He told People that while it was a tough decision, it felt like the right time for him to depart and pursue other projects.

'Chicago Fire' star Jesse Spencer departed the series after nearly 10 years and 200 episodes during Wednesday night's episode.

Spencer explained to People why he made the tough decision to leave the show.

"This was a difficult decision because I have loved the show from the start but there are other things that I would like to do in the future, and there's some family that I need to take care of," Spencer explained. "I was marking off these milestones and looking to the future … and it was time."

He continued, "It felt so organic for me and a perfect full circle and a really reasonable way for Casey to organically leave."

In this week's episode, Spencer's character, Captain Matt Casey, said goodbye to his friends and coworkers as he left to go take care of the sons of his late best friend, Andy Darden, who died in the pilot episode of the show.

But Casey may return, hinting during the episode that he'd come back to the Windy City when the boys were in college, according to a recap in Entertainment Weekly.

Showrunner Derek Haas said he was hoping to bring Spencer back.

"I never try to predict what's going to happen production-wise," Haas told People, "But we're in the camp of whenever Jesse wants to come do an episode with us, we will move mountains and earth to make that happen. We've been talking. We've got some ideas on what that would be."