Chicago Fire fans have grown to hate Sergeant Hank Voight, but they will have to rethink their stance as the cop takes on a leading role in Chicago PD.

Introduced in the first season of NBC's Chicago Fire, Voight (Jason Beghe) was a detective who was arrested and sent to prison after continually threatening Matthew Casey (Jesse Spencer) and attempting to have him murdered. After finagling his own release, Voight was promoted to Sergent and is now in control of the Intelligence Unit.

"He's a very good cop but he's more of a stick than a carrot kind of guy," Beghe said of his character in a recent featurette. "He knows what he's supposed to do but he does what he has to do."

Just as the fans have to learn to support someone they used to view as an enemy, characters under Voight's command will have to so the same. Detective Antonio Dawson (Jon Seda) originally arrested Voight and will now be serving with him.

"Even I remember saying, 'Wow, is that going to work? I arrested this man, I put him in Jail, and now he's my boss,'" Seda explained in the featurette. "Were going to dig deep on Chicago PD. It deals with the intelligence unit...[and] there's a mystery around the intelligence unit. Not everyone is privy to knowing how they operate."

In case Voight still rubs some viewers the wrong way, Chicago PD has plenty of other characters to cheer for. Joining Beghe and Seda in the new procedural are LaRoyce Hawkins, Archie Kao, Marina Squerciati, Sophia Bush, Jesse Lee Soffer, Patrick Flueger, and Elias Koteas. Scroll through the gallery above to check out new characters profiles from Spoiler TV and click the video below to see a preview before the premiere episode, "Stepping Stone."

Chicago PD will air Jan. 8 at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.