As The Pitt crew gears up for Season 2, creator and executive producer R. Scott Gemmill previewed what viewers can expect from the sophomore installment — including character returns (and new additions) and the reasoning behind the 10-month time jump.
During Deadline’s Contenders TV panel for the medical procedural earlier this month, the creative team revealed the next day-long shift would take place over Fourth of July weekend, which always brings a boom of injuries to the ER.
But in a new interview with TVLine, Gemmill added that Langdon’s (Patrick Ball) sobriety journey is one of the key factors behind the jump ahead, in addition to practical considerations like Pittsburgh’s weather matching what’s seen on screen and giving the characters enough time to evolve.
“I think we will pick up on Langdon’s first day back at work, but it’ll be more than a month,” he explained, referencing the 30-day inpatient rehab treatment the character must receive before returning to his physician role. “The biggest driver of [the Season 2 time jump is] Langdon … Nine, basically 10 months later, gives a lot of room for us to have developed a few stories in the interim and catch up with everyone. And with it being Langdon’s first day back, we get to catch up as he catches up with all those people.”
Star Noah Wyle concurred, adding, “There’s no benefit in coming back quickly, before everybody’s had a chance to have this experience really sink in, and it manifests itself in behaviors that are interesting to watch — that are different or more informed than in Season 1.”
Given that the word-of-mouth hit series lives in the “smaller spaces” of the emergency department, Gemill revealed The Pitt is unlikely to venture outside of its contained atmosphere too much, whether for flashbacks or outside-the-ER character development.
“We talk about it, and then we shy away from it, because I think there’s a beauty to the premise in its simplicity and it’s singularity, and I hate messing with that — at least this early,” he said. “If there’s a Season 12, we’ll do a musical. Right now, we kind of want to stick to what was working for us, but we’re still learning. It’s a process.”
Wyle echoed the sentiment, saying that while it’s “really nice to earn a peek into these personal lives,” it can often lead to “a slippery slope.” He continued, “We think those moments are so much better earned when they come few and far between, and when they really feel grounded. So, if anything, this year we’re trying to stay ultra disciplined to the model we’ve constructed, and resist the temptation to get a little arty with it — or, you know, just to mess with it.”
However, that doesn’t mean The Pitt won’t continue to shake some things up, including via “a surprise” for Shawn Hatosy’s fan favorite night shift leader Dr. Abbott, Gemmill said, as well as new faces: “We’re going to introduce a couple of new characters, as well, because there are always new people coming in and out of the hospital. So that will give us some new dynamics as well.”
Meanwhile, as audiences have agonized over the fates of the ensemble — namely, Katherine LaNasa’s charge nurse Dana, who decided to depart after being attacked by a disgruntled, violent patient — Gemmill and Wyle teased that the show “can’t get rid of” her, alluding to a possible return after Dana’s hiatus.
With that, certain characters like Whitaker (Gerran Howell) and Javadi (Shabana Azeez) will see promotions or graduations within the department, as the show will “never” tackle other wards in the hospital. The former will be an intern, meaning he will finally receive compensation, while the latter will be embarking on a sub-internship.
“We find out that maybe that’s just her stalling because she doesn’t want to make up her mind about where she wants to go,” Gemmill said. “So we’ll see everybody, for the most part, and some people might be working different hours and different shifts, but it’s pretty much the same crew.”
