When is ‘The Pitt’ season 2 coming out? What we know about the future of Max’s white-knuckle medical drama

Grey’s Anatomy‘s vice-like grip on the medical drama genre is loosening with The Pitt, a thrilling and impeccably researched new Max series set in a Pittsburgh emergency room.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because it is. The Pitt was created by R. Scott Gemmill, a former writer and producer on ER, the venerable Emmy-winning series that ran 15 seasons on NBC. In her A- review, Entertainment Weekly‘s Kristen Baldwin called it “ruthlessly realistic” in its “depiction of our beleaguered/broken healthcare system,” declaring it “the most engrossing and addictive medical drama to come along since Grey’s Anatomy and, well, ER.”

Noah Wyle, who cut his teeth on ER as John Carter, again takes up the stethoscope as The Pitt‘s Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch while also serving as an executive producer. He’s surrounded by a charming and intense stable of doctors, nurses, EMTs, and patients played by Tracy Ifeachor, Shawn Hatosy, Supriya Ganesh, Patrick Ball, Fiona Dourif, and Taylor Dearden.

With the drama’s 15-episode debut season wrapping up this week, fans are understandably curious about the series’ future. So, will there be a second season of The Pitt? When will Dr. Robby be back in our lives? Read on for everything we know about The Pitt season 2.

Will there be a season 2 of The Pitt?

Hallelujah, yes.

The Pitt was renewed for a second season in February, with Warner Bros. Television declaring it as the streamer’s most-watched title globally.

“We’re excited and delighted with the audience response for our first season of The Pitt and can’t be more appreciative of our partners at Max and Warner Bros. Television for all of their extraordinary support throughout our first season,” said Gemmill, Wyle, and executive producer John Wells in a joint statement.

“It’s been a thrill to watch audiences embrace The Pitt as an update to procedural storytelling with a cast who authentically embody the heroics of doctors and nurses on shift in a 2025 emergency room,” added Sarah Aubrey, Head of Max Original Programming. “Our collaboration with John Wells, R. Scott Gemmill, Noah Wyle, and Warner Bros. Television has been an incredibly rewarding experience, and we are excited to continue down this path with another season.”

When does The Pitt season 2 come out?

Max CEO Casey Bloys recently told Vulture that season 2 of The Pitt will arrive early next year.

“[T]he second season will premiere in January of 2026, a year later [than Season 1],” he told the outlet. “This model of more episodes cuts down on the gap between seasons. On the platform, we have shows like House of the Dragon, The Last of Us, and White Lotus, which, because of how they’re made, can take two years to make. What I love about something like The Pitt is, I can get 15 episodes in a year. That’s a really great addition to what we’re already doing on the platform. And I’d like to do more shows in this model.”

Speaking with Variety, Wyle confirmed that season 2 will start filming in June. Furthermore, Max plans to produce a new season every year.

Will there be a time jump in The Pitt season 2?

The Pitt‘s first season unfolds across a single (and quite eventful) day in the ER. Each episode plays across an hour, allowing for an intimacy and sense of urgency that you don’t see in other medical dramas. It also limits the amount of romantic intrigue they can squeeze in, which may appeal to those who prefer the procedural elements of medical shows over the soapier ones.

According to Gemmill, season 2 will do the same. Speaking at Deadline’s Contenders TV in April, the creator and showrunner confirmed that season 2 will take place 10 months after the events of season 1 during the Fourth of July weekend.

Wells confirmed to EW that, like season 1, it will unfold across another 15-hour workday. “It is going to be a single shift,” he said. “The intent here is to let us follow and understand and feel what happens to emergency room physicians and all the other medical personnel during those kinds of shifts. We’ll get senses of what their lives are outside and we’ll get information based on what’s happened in their lives outside, but within the workplace.”

He continued, “It’s a workplace family, and that’s where we’re going to learn about our characters. They come to work and they clock in and they stay until they’re done. So this isn’t a show that’s going to end up following a lot of people home and seeing them for Thanksgiving dinner.”

Production is already underway. (Maybe we’ll see a few fingers blown off by firecrackers?)

Will The Pitt cast return for season 2?

Much of The Pitt’s success comes courtesy of its ensemble, which includes a motley crew of seasoned residents, insecure medical students, brassy nurses, and unlikable administrators. To lose any of them would be a loss, but transfers and shakeups happen in every job, so it’s unlikely we’ll see everyone in season 1’s ensemble return next year.

“We’ll see some of the regulars and we’ll probably introduce some new people as well,” Gemmill told EW. “Not everyone works the same shift every week, so we may see some new people and some others who we’ve come to know might not be working that shift, but it doesn’t mean they’re gone for good.”

Wells added, “They do overlapping shifts. So there are also people who come in later and leave later or come in earlier and leave earlier. So you may see a certain amount of that, but it’s about the workplace.”

Someone we’ll definitely be seeing? Wyle’s Dr. Robby. Not only is Wyle an executive producer, but it feels as if we’ve only scratched the surface of his character’s traumas, expertise, and backstory so far.

Wyle told Variety that season 2 will partly focus on this part of the character, noting that Dr. Robby will “no longer [be] able to pretend to himself that he doesn’t need help.”

He added, “In a perfect world, this show goes several seasons, so we don’t have to rush this process. It’s a really interesting road that he’s about to embark on.”

But, as anyone who’s scrolled social media of late knows, there are a handful of characters who’ve particularly enraptured the show’s growing audience.

One is neurodivergent second-year resident Dr. Melissa King, who brings a gentle and offbeat energy to the ER. She’s played by Taylor Dearden, the daughter of Breaking Bad‘s Bryan Cranston and veteran of Netflix’s American Vandal (2018) and Apple TV+’s For All Mankind (2022).

Another standout is Dennis Whitaker, an anxious but brilliant fourth-year medical student who EW’s critic compared to Wyle’s ER character in early seasons. Whitaker is played by Gerran Howell, who carried the title role on the CBBC’s Young Dracula (2006–2014) before appearing on NBC’s Emerald City (2017) and Hulu’s adaptation of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 (2019).

And, hey, maybe season 2 will star you. Yes, you, the person reading this piece.

During the Deadline event, Wyle revealed the series needs additional cast and crew members. “We’re calling all pros,” he said. “We want people who are good with props and who are used to working in a company, with an ensemble. We want creativity. We want passion. We don’t want ego coming to play. We have tremendous people showing up excited.”

The show’s structure, after all, should appeal to background players. “Guest actors who were on the show worked for months, oftentimes just appearing in the waiting room for a scene or two, and then being in the background and then eventually they have a scene,” Wells explained. “We had wonderful actors who signed on to be background for four or five episodes and then had major scenes. So everybody was on set the entire time, including all of our regulars. The set is so deep and big that we see everything so everybody is there.”

Is The Pitt the subject of a lawsuit?

It is. The estate of Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton, who also created ER, is suing Warner Bros. Television, Wells, Wyle, and Gemmill for breach of contract, claiming that The Pitt is a reboot of ER in all but name.

“The Pitt is ER,” reads a complaint filed last summer. “It’s not like ER, it’s not kind of ER, it’s not sort of ER. It is ER complete with the same executive producer, writer, star, production companies, studio, and network as the planned ER reboot.”

In a statement provided to EW, Warner Bros. Television called the lawsuit “baseless,” adding, “The Pitt is a new and original show. Any suggestion otherwise is false, and Warner Bros. Television intends to vigorously defend against these meritless claims.”

Last November, lawyers for Warner Bros. Television filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. “The Pitt is a completely different show from ER,” says the filing, per Deadline. “Plaintiff cannot use Mr. Crichton’s ER contract as a speech-stifling weapon to prevent Defendants from ever making a show about emergency medicine.”

EW’s critic weighed in on the lawsuit in her review, writing, “I can confirm that almost every medical show since ER, including The Pitt, bears at least some of its hallmarks. Plenty of medical dramas have tried to replicate ER in the 31 years since it premiered; inevitably, they failed. But The Pitt and its characters earn your attention, which is something a mere rip-off couldn’t do. (Note: This opinion is not admissible in a court of law.)”

Wyle told Variety that an ER reboot “got pretty close to being a reality,” but that “we pivoted as far in the opposite direction as we could” after negotiations with the Crichton estate broke down.

He added, “The only thing that I can legally speak to is how I feel emotionally, which is just profoundly sad and disappointed. This taints the legacy, and it shouldn’t have. At one point, this could have been a partnership. And when it wasn’t a partnership, it didn’t need to turn acrimonious. But on the 30th anniversary of ER, I’ve never felt less celebratory of that achievement than I do this year.” 

Where can I watch The Pitt?

The Pitt season 1 is currently streaming on Max.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly’s free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.