Noah Wyle has promised fans of The Pitt that there are long-term plans for the HBO Max show.
“It’s a big workload but it’s also a labour of love,” Wyle, 54, told London’s The Times in an interview published on Wednesday, May 6. “I’m committed to this being a multi-season show and I’m really committed to this mental health journey that we’re taking [his character] Robby through that I think will have a really lovely arrival point.”
Wyle plays senior attending physician Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch on The Pitt, in addition to executive producing the show and serving on its writing staff. The series reunites Wyle with executive producer John Wells, whom he worked with on the classic NBC medical drama ER. (Wyle played emergency room doctor John Carter on ER from 1994 to 2006. He briefly returned to the show in 2009 as part of its final season.)
“Lightning never strikes twice in the same place and yet it has in my career,” he told the U.K. outlet. “In some ways it’s full circle and I’m getting to do it again with a little wisdom and maturity and perspective [than with ER].”
Wyle teased that The Pitt will continue to explore hard-hitting issues ripped from the headlines, after tackling immigration raids and homelessness in past episodes.
“I think of [the show] as being an empathy generator,” he said. “It’s one of those object lessons in don’t ever judge because you don’t know what somebody else is struggling with. The emergency room is one of the few places where all the lines that divide us aren’t applicable.”
HBO renewed The Pitt for a third season in January, though the show is undergoing a significant cast overhaul with the departure of Supriya Ganesh as Dr. Samira Mohan. The Pitt lost another major cast member when Tracy Ifeachor’s Dr. Heather Collins was written out after the first season.
Wyle recently told Variety at PaleyFest that it makes sense for there to be a staff turnover at the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center.
“It’s an inevitability that’s going to happen every season with this show, because as writers we’re hard-pressed to figure out what a lapse of time we can have and keep most of the ensemble together realistically,” Wyle explained in April.
He added, “Emergency rooms have a high revolving door. As always, we try to bring in new characters or promote from within as we go through these cast changes and try to keep the story lines fresh, but obviously, Supriya has been a huge part of our show since the beginning.”
“Dr. Mohan is a beloved character, and I love playing with her and working with Supriya, and we wish her all the best in her next endeavors, and we’re going to miss her,” the actor concluded.
The Pitt creator R. Scott Gemmill subsequently denied that there was any significance to two women of color being written off the hit show.
“[It’s] just a by-product of having a diverse cast … We have a lot of women, and a lot of women of color,” Gemmill clarified. “It’s just a coincidence more than anything else.”
The first two seasons of The Pitt are available to stream now via HBO Max. A third season is in development.
