The second season of the HBO Max medical drama has come to an end, leaving its characters (and viewers) exhausted after a 15-hour shift.
But the story of doctors and nurses at the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Centre doesn’t end there. Dr Robby and his team will be back in season 3 to save lives, grappling with being overworked, underfunded, at the mercy of hospital bureaucracy, and, at times, personal crisis.
Given The Pitt’s format, a few characters are likely to be missing from season 3. Who will return to work at the ER? What challenges will they face? Will they be able to put grudges behind them and forge new friendships?
Here you’ll find all the information about season 3 of the award-winning HBO Max series.
When could The Pitt season 3 be released?
The first season premiered in January 2025, and the second in January 2026. The Pitt is set to return for a third season as early as the start of 2027.
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Who could return in The Pitt season 3?
In The Pitt, there are no monsters or serial killers, but its characters still live on the edge – and only the most resilient doctors and nurses continue to work on the ward. Of course, given that the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Centre is a teaching hospital, it’s natural that some students and young doctors leave to pursue a different area of expertise.
According to the latest reports, the third series will be missing senior resident Dr. Samira Mohan, played by Supriya Ganesh. In season 2 Dr. Mohan, who’s known for her empathy and attention to detail, faced a major crisis in both her private and professional life. Everything suggests that her departure from the series will be a story-driven decision.
We can’t imagine the third season of The Pitt without Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle). Indeed, he will return but, according to R. Scott Gemmill, the series’ creator, he won’t be working at the ER from the very first episode.
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We expect that season 3 will also see the return of:
- Katherine LaNasa as Dana Evans
- Patrick Ball as Dr. Frank Langdon
- Fiona Dourif as Dr. Cassie McKay
- Shawn Hatosy as Dr. Jack Abbot
- Alexandra Metz as Dr. Yolanda Garcia
- Taylor Dearden as Dr. Melissa “Mel” King
- Isa Briones as Dr. Trinity Santos
- Gerran Howell as Dr. Dennis Whitaker
- Ken Kirby as Dr. John Shen
- Kristin Villanueva as Princess Dela Cruz
- Amielynn Abellera as Perlah Alawi
- Brandon Mendez Homer as Donnie Donahue
- Jalen Thomas Brooks as Mateo Diaz
- Laëtitia Hollard as Emma Nolan
HBO has confirmed that Ayesha Harris as Dr Parker Ellis, a night-shift senior resident, will be a series regular in the third season. The doctor will be working the day shift.
We hope that Jesse Van Horn (Ned Brower), the nurse arrested by ICE agents, will also be back.
There are doubts about whether Dr. Victoria Javadi (Shabana Azeez) will return in season 3, as she struggled with pressure from her parents, a lack of self-confidence and burnout. In the season 2 finale, she was considering leaving ER for emergency psychiatry.
Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi), a new attending physician, may also be missing from season 3, since she arrived as a replacement for Robby’s sabbatical. Moreover, she suffers from a serious neurological condition that may prevent her from working at the ER.
It’s hard to say whether the students James Ogilvie (Lucas Iverson) and Joy Kwon (Irene Choi) will remain on the ward. The second season also introduced Dr. Nazely Toomarian (Sofia Hasmik), an intern on the night shift, and Dr. Crus Henderson (Luke Tennie), a fourth-year night-shift resident. Their future in the series remains unclear for now.
HBO Max
What could The Pitt season 3 be about?
In the third season of The Pitt, we can expect a new set of minor and serious injuries, illnesses, complex medical procedures and life-saving treatments.
There will be another time jump between the second and third seasons, although this time it will be slightly shorter, lasting just four months. In an interview with TVLine, R. Scott Gemmill, the creator of the medical drama, explained that the third season will be set in November.
We’ll start in November. That serves a lot of purposes for us. It gives us some cold-weather scenarios, but also allows us to keep people a little longer who would normally be moving on, if we want. Sometimes those big jumps aren’t always ideal. There’s a lot of information you have to catch up on, so this way it’s less of a dump.
This ties in with a comment made by Noah Wyle, who suggested some time ago that the new season might be set in winter (via Variety):
The only time jump we’re interested in making is to get into a different weather season, to get into a slightly different mode of cases that come with a change in weather. If that was summer, then what happens in the winter when you get cold, snow and black ice?
HBO Max
In each season, a crisis complicated work in the ER. In the first series, it was a terrorist attack at a festival and the theft of a hospital ambulance, while in the second, it was the 4th of July celebrations, a heatwave and a cyberattack.
We can certainly expect further challenges in season 3.
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