“Anytime you mix alcohol, patriotism and fireworks, it’s good for drama and comedy,” teases Noah Wyle, which is exactly what The Pitt has in store for season two.
The HBO Max hit, fresh off of a best drama series win at the Emmys, is back, following another high-speed day at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center — and this time, that day is the Fourth of July. (Each episode depicts one continuous hour of an emergency room shift, with the whole season taking place over a single day).
“We wanted it to be the amount of time it would have taken for [Patrick Ball’s character] Langdon to complete a rehab program — that put about nine or 10 months on it, that put us in summer,” Wyle told The Hollywood Reporter at the L.A. premiere on Wednesday of choosing to center around the holiday. “ERs are notoriously busy on holiday weekends; Fourth of July, being the 250th anniversary of America this year seemed like a really rich tapestry to play with.”
Katherine LaNasa added that July 4 works two ways this season: “One is that people do stupid stuff, it’s like amateur hour on the Fourth of July so you get a little bit of comic relief from that,” but also takes place “while we’re celebrating our country, while also shining a light on what’s wrong with our country” with the American health care system.
Katherine LaNasa and Noah Wyle at the premiere.
Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for HBO
On top of Wyle’s starring, writing and executive producing duties, he also directs an episode this season, noting that “Moving forward, I would love to do more. I think it’s sort of an asset being a player-coach when you’re there and you’re that familiar with the cast and crew and the set, the scripts, having been in the writing room.”
He continued, “It’s an easy transition from going to attending in the hospital to sitting in the director’s chair. I like being a communicator, I like working with all of the different departments and I like inspiring their creativity — it’s the most fun I really have ever had working.”
The actors around Wyle had nothing but nice things to say about his turn behind the camera, with co-star Fiona Dourif teasing, “I think low key all of us went to Noah at times for direction, he sort of is like the daddy of The Pitt. So it was pretty seamless; it was pretty fun because his stand-in, we call him Dr. Bobby, but he would perform all of Noah’s scenes in rehearsals so Noah could get the camera right.”
It was announced at the premiere that The Pitt was renewed for a third season, as Wyle spoke about his long-term vision for the show.
“I think [showrunner R.] Scott [Gemmill] and I both feel significantly that we employ upwards of 350 people in Los Angeles right now, nine or 10 months a year, and we’d like to keep that going as long as possible,” he said, as a rare project that shoots in L.A. “I think we’d also like to enjoy ourselves while we do it, and we’d like the characters of the show to still have something to say when we finish. So throw all of those variables together, and we’ll see how far we get.”
Executive producer John Wells added, “Having done medical shows since China Beach, I keep waiting for us to have actually solved some of the problems in the health care system and we haven’t. So I would say unless something dramatically changes in the way that the American health care system is organized, we’re going to have a lot of material for a lot of years. As long as HBO Max wants us to do it, I think there will be plenty to write about.”
The Pitt season two premieres Thursday on HBO Max.
