With a new season of television, especially one in the medical or procedural drama, chances are a new character will come in. But would that have been the case if The Resident hadn’t been canceled after six seasons and instead had returned for a seventh? TV Insider asked co-creator Amy Holden Jones and executive producer Andrew Chapman just that when they detailed what would have happened in a Season 7.
“No, because we had Yamada [Ian Anthony Dale], and we hadn’t used him enough, so he was like the major new character,” Jones told us.
However, she said there was a scenario in which the cast would have expanded. “That thing sort of is dependent on who stays and who goes. And if somebody goes, then you have to fill that hole,” she explained. “But we had a lot of characters already. It was hard scrambling all the ones we had. If you start counting ’em all up and you had the kids, we got a lot.”
Chapman added, “It was hard to find time to put them into each episode. Then you were like, ‘Oh, what about that person?’ You’re like, ‘Okay, they’ll [sit out] for two episodes, but the fans want to see them.’”
Jones noted that she’d see complaints on Twitter if characters weren’t in episodes. She also pointed to one of the newest medical dramas and how its different format — real-time, with each season covering one shift — factors in.
“It was complicated because you’ve got some medicine in there, too. It’s a big difference with a show like The Pitt, which is just beginning and it may eventually evolve and it’s a wonderful show, but it’s very heavy medicine [and] very light soap. And so it’ll be interesting to see if they hold to that,” she said. “Or, I mean, even ER, which became much more character driven as time went on. And it’ll be interesting to see how they deal with that because they’re confined to the ER. So I don’t know if they want to go that way or they’ll just stay heavy medicine.”
Would you have wanted to see a new character? Let us know in the comments section below.
The Resident, Complete Series, Streaming Now, Hulu & Netflix