The Chi ends with an eight-season South Side legacy

As The Chi closes out its final season, its cast looks back on eight years of insisting on the humanity of Chicago’s South Side—through changing storylines, hard casting turns, and growth on and off set—culminating in one last run starting May 22 on Showtime a

When The Chi premiered on Showtime in 2018. the cast didn’t pretend to know how far a South Side story like this would travel. “Nobody really knew how far it would go. ” the production team’s reflection captures—because at the start. even belief in the work didn’t guarantee a long life in show business.

For Jacob Latimore, who plays Emmett, the early days carried the anxiety that comes with anything unfamiliar. After the first season, he remembers thinking he should be searching for what comes next. “I think after the first season, I was like, all right, I need to start looking for another movie. I need to start playing maybe a tour, another album,” Latimore said. “I think as actors, we always kind of have to be ready to pivot.”.

They didn’t have to pivot. Eight seasons later, they’re still here—just as surprised as they once were, but changed by what they built.

On the edge of the series’ final bow. co-star Birgundi Baker—who plays Kiesha—described a certainty she couldn’t fully translate into a number. “I knew it was going to go for a long time. ” she said. explaining that she told Hannaha all the time that she wanted to be a series regular. “I could not have dreamed of eight seasons.” For her. the run didn’t just exceed expectations; it carried the promise of a “really good moment.”.

Hannaha Hall, who plays Tiffany, admitted she felt something close to hope mixed with instinct about how television works. “I was unsure,” she said. “I was just really happy that Chicago was being placed on screen…I thought it was very special. but I didn’t know.” Hall remembered Jacob making a joke about “Six seasons. ” and her immediate uncertainty—“I literally remember that I’m like. ‘Six?. I don’t know.’ But we’re here—eight!”.

The final stretch is arriving with a clear date for viewers: The Chi’s eighth and final season is set to take its final bow on Showtime and Paramount+ starting on May 22. The cast members dressed to the nines for a digital cover shoot in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood. speaking about beginnings and endings with the kind of closeness that only long runs create. A few cast members—like Latimore. Baker. and Hall—were there from the start and were “lucky enough to be present for the very end.”.

Alongside them were Luke James and Jason Weaver, who joined in Season 4. Weaver’s path to The Chi carries its own twist of timing and replacement. He said he was originally set to play Ronnie in the pilot, when the show was still taking shape. But the pilot had to be reshot with a different lineup of actors. and Hall was one of the only ones to remain.

Weaver described how that shift could have shut the door—yet Waithe’s decision-making kept it open. “That character Ronnie. at that time. although I was able to play it. I think believably. that wasn’t meant for me. But Shaad was meant for me,” he said. He recalled receiving the news that he wasn’t going with the original pilot and then hearing from Lena Waithe about why the future might still include him. “Hey brother. ” Weaver remembered her saying. “I know this is crazy. but you know this business.” He said she told him that when she got the show running the way it needed to run—and when she could tell the stories she wanted to tell—she would come back for him. “And sure enough, she really did.”.

That determination from Waithe—to keep building opportunities for talent she believed in—runs through the cast’s reflections on why the series lasted as long as it did.

When central character Brandon. played by Jason Mitchell. had to exit the series at the end of Season 2 following serious allegations about Mitchell’s behavior on set. Waithe expanded the ensemble rather than shrinking it. The cast credits that choice with keeping the show moving: she “trusted her ensemble enough to uplift them. ” expanded their stories. and allowed audiences to watch the characters grow up in real time—while also changing how the actors understood their responsibilities.

Latimore connected that shift to the culture on set itself. He described having early experience working with veteran leading actors like Forest Whitaker and Will Smith. and then deciding to bring that structure back into his own work. He said he wanted to “set the example,” showing up prepared, knowing his lines, and sharpening himself “every year.”.

After Williams’s firing. Latimore said he tried to protect something he saw as fragile: the sense of safety and warmth that defines a set. He described trying to be an hour early—saying hello to the catering team. showing up before the PAs—so that guests wouldn’t feel singled out. “I was trying to make all the guests feel welcome because it could become a stigma as if our set wasn’t maybe safe and that kind of made me feel like. nah. our set is safe.”.

Baker’s growth, too, came through more than staying in place. Her character Kiesha was given one of the series’ most significant storylines: navigating being kidnapped. raped and impregnated. building a blended family with Emmett. forging an unlikely sisterhood with his ex-wife (played by Hall). and welcoming a daughter at the end of Season 7.

Baker said she spoke with Waithe and the team about what would come next. and that her advancement began earlier than she expected. “I spoke with Lena and the team. and they told me that I would be moving up Season 3 and I was just ready. ” Baker said. “I was prepared and grateful for the opportunity to be trusted with more.” She added that she believed the storyline’s timing mattered—“The timing was perfect.”.

For Luke James, the right challenge arrived after his own show was canceled. James said his series Star was canceled. and about a week later he received a request to audition for Trig in The Chi. He said the role was exactly what he asked God for—“something not musical. something outside of my wheelhouse.” When he sent his tape. he said he got a text from Lena Waithe about days later. thanking him and describing what she expected from the ride ahead. “It was like three days later I get a text from Lena thanking me and just saying that we’re going to have a great ride together and this is going to be expansive. It’s going to be expansive. It’s going to be a beautiful experience,” he said.

James said the series felt purposeful from the start. “Before I was on this show. I just thought it was huge. ” he said. adding that it wasn’t trying to “get the crowd going” so much as talk about what needed to be talked about. “I was geeked to just be a part of such a drama,” he said. “Yeah, it changed my world forever.”.

The show’s impact extends beyond storylines and into how people see Chicago. After years of the “Chiraq” label, Waithe, the cast and crew set out to show the city’s full breadth. For Hall and Weaver, making that mission real wasn’t abstract.

Hall pointed to the way the show grounds Chicago culture in details she recognizes as personal and familiar. “We do a really good job of showing the Chicago culture,” she said. “It’s a lot of Chicago coded things that we do, like the block club parties, the skating rink. Those things are very indigenous to us and what’s special to us in our culture.”.

Weaver added that writers and performers helped shape what he sees as the “true story” of what growing up felt like: community. family. cookouts. and block parties. “Yeah, the violence and the gangster stuff is like an element,” he said. “It’s a piece of what the city is about, but that’s not the whole story.”.

Waithe’s approach, as James described it through his own experience, is that the characters could exist anywhere. James is from New Orleans. He said the premise clicked for him fast: “You could change the name of it and call it The N-O. ” he said. He described learning more about Chicago while recognizing a throughline he connected to large shared history and culture. He pointed to the Great Migration and said people are “pretty much similar tribes. ” with celebrations and life moments that overlap. “So, I think that’s why it resonates,” he said. “It may seem niche to others. but it’s universal to all of us and that’s what makes a profound show. It just crosses the lines if you take the ride.”.

That idea—human story first—sits at the center of what the cast says they’ll carry after the last episodes roll out. Over the next 10 episodes. viewers will get one more ride with the show. and the people behind it are already talking about the parts they’ll miss: filming in Chicago. the food. “the yachts” on the water in summertime. and the colorful. dedicated extras who appear each day.

They’re also honest about what will be lost when the stability of a long-running TV job disappears. But the mood stays steady. They say there’s no bitterness with the sweet. They believe the story they were tasked with telling by Waithe is complete—and built to last.

Weaver offered one of the clearest personal takeaways. He said The Chi deepened his understanding of the diversity and complexity of the Black community. “I’ve never subscribed to the theory that Black people were a monolith,” he said. He described how the show opened conversations for him, especially around mental health. He said Black men approach him in the street every day to talk about men’s circles and mental health. and that it’s something he “never really discussed with my friends before” and hadn’t focused on for himself.

Now, he said, he checks in more. “I’ve actually having conversations with members of the community that have let me know how it’s made such a positive impact in their lives,” he said. “I’m so grateful.”

For all the uncertainty that once surrounded The Chi’s future, the cast now stands at the end of a run that began as a risk and became a defining portrayal—of Chicago’s South Side, and of the people inside it.

CREDITS

Photographer: @lelanief
Production: @allworthypeople
Talent: @lenawaithe @jacoblatimore @hannahahall @wolfjames @birgundi_baker @itsjasonweaver
Stylist: @newheartnyc
Hair: @takishahair
Makeup: @alovethepro
Special thanks to: @paramountplus
ESSENCEEditorial Director: @ghostwritervic
Content Operations Manager: @shelbylnstewart
VP. of Social & Special Projects: @mentionme
Visuals Director: @hashtag_bre
Art Director: @so.lit
Writer: @ghostwritervic.

The Chi Lena Waithe Showtime Paramount+ Jacob Latimore Birgundi Baker Hannaha Hall Luke James Jason Weaver Kiesha Emmett Tiffany Trig Ronnie Shaad Chicago South Side May 22