(Left to right) Shawn Hatosy, Taylor Dearden, Fiona Dourif, Noah Wyle, Shabana Azeez, Patrick Ball and Katherine LaNasa in “The Pitt.”
HBO Max
With 13 Emmy nominations for its first season, The Pitt on HBO Max has quickly become a beloved favorite with critics and viewers alike. With a story that spans 15 hours in a matter of 15 episodes, The Pitt takes place at a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania emergency room, as the team of medical professionals there strive to best treat their many incoming patients, while also attempting to take care of their own lingering issues and other commitments.
With Emmy nominations that include “Outstanding Drama Series,” “Outstanding Writing,” “Outstanding Directing” and “Outstanding Casting,” I spoke with a handful of The Pitt actors, first wondering what fans can expect in the second season, which is currently filming and expected to debut in January 2026.
Noah Wyle and Fiona Dourif in “The Pitt” Season 2.
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Fiona Dourif, who plays Dr. Cassie McKay, said of season two, “Season two is set on the 4th of July and there is going to be maybe some firework incidents. There’s going to be some sub-genre of Americans that are going to show up – that’s very fun. Everybody is a little bit more confident and joyful, I think. It feels even a little better – a little more graceful.”
Noah Wyle, Katherine LaNasa and Sepideh Moafi in “The Pitt” Season 2.
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Katherine LaNasa, who plays Charge Nurse Dana Evans and is Emmy-nominated for “Outstanding Supporting Actress,” said, “I’m just excited about my own journey that Dana gets to take. She’s going to start off with a little more boundaries, a little more distance, which is correct for what she went through. Then, she’s going to have a journey that I don’t exactly know what it is, but I’m in the middle of it now. I don’t know where it’s going to go, but just really excited that they don’t just have these overarching plots, but that every character also has this emotional journey that they go through – and just the writing is so lovely in that way.”
Patrick Ball in “The Pitt” Season 2.
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Patrick Ball, who plays Dr. Frank Langdon, said, “I think season one was really all about introducing this world and introducing these people to an audience, and I think there’s a lot of work that has to be done in setting up that world. I think now in season two, we get to come back and all that work has been done for us. So, we can really just dive in and get to know these characters more and more, which is the great thing about these sort of shows.”
Sepideh Moafi, Taylor Dearden, Katherine LaNasa, Gerran Howell and Supriya Ganesh in “The Pitt” Season 2.
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Taylor Dearden, who plays Dr. Melissa King, said of The Pitt season two, “Ten months have passed and that’s a long time. I think a lot of the characters have either settled in more or have something else going on in their lives. It’s completely new from last season, so it’s definitely a big change, but it’s not big enough that you’re not going to be able to follow or see the same people.”
Shawn Hatosy in “The Pitt.”
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Shawn Hatosy, who plays Dr. Jack Abbot and is Emmy-nominated for “Outstanding Guest Actor,” said of his character returning for the second season, “Well, I’m glad he’s back. I’m glad he didn’t jump off the roof in the hiatus and I’m excited to see what the writers have in store. I’m directing one of the episodes, so I’m very excited about that. This is such a talented ensemble, with the best crew in the business, here in LA.”
Shabana Azeez, Isa Briones, Gerran Howell and Noah Wyle in “The Pitt” Season 2.
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Shabana Azeez, who plays medical student Victoria Javadi on The Pitt, said, “All the fans were like theorizing what was going to happen. It’s better – whatever you’ve got, it’s better!”
Noah Wyle, Ned Brower and Supriya Ganesh in “The Pitt” Season 2.
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Noah Wyle, who plays Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch and is Emmy-nominated for “Outstanding Lead Actor,” said of season two, “This is going to be the crucible season, to see whether or not if you take a ticking clock to a nervous breakdown or a mass casualty event off the table and just say we’re focusing on another shift with characters you now know, who are facing hardships and trials & tribulations that we all face – but is the aggregate tension of that compelling enough to keep viewers tuning in, week-after-week? I think it will be. So, that’s what we’ve tried to do. We’ve not tried to be bigger, bolder, faster, funnier. We’ve just tried to be consistent with the attention-to-detail and specificity we brought to the writing in season one, and to make sure that the characters are 10 months later in their lives, reflective of what’s happened within that 10 months period, but also the mass casualty event that they were all witness to before that. So, a lot of season two is about mental health of the practitioners and people who are on the front lines, and the various resources that are made available that they may or may not take, make use of – and the difficulty in accepting help, because sometimes doctors don’t make the best patients.”
As I concluded my conversations with these celebrated actors from The Pitt, I asked each of them my signature and original interview question – What would say to your character, if only you could? What do you feel they need to hear from you – the person who probably knows them best, from the outside in?
Wyle laughed and said with Dr. Robby in mind, “Well, I kind of need him f***ed up for four more years.”
Noah Wyle and Gerran Howell in “The Pitt.”
HBO Max
I playfully interjected, “Otherwise, there’s no more television?”
He replied, “Yeah – so heal slowly, my man.”
Shabana Azeez in “The Pitt.”
HBO MAX
Azeez said with Javadi in mind, “I think she is really brave in so many ways, but she’s not brave about stepping out and doing her own thing and trying something new. I think that I would tell her to quit medicine – but then, would I? Because I want a job. I’d hope she didn’t listen, so I could keep being employed. I would hope that she took the time to go to therapy.”
Shawn Hatosy and Katherine LaNasa in “The Pitt.”
HBO MAX
Hatosy said with Dr. Abbot in mind, “I think that he needs to listen to some podcasts – maybe some light, you know, comedic. I can maybe put together a playlist for him to sort of like – if he just listens to the music a little bit, then he could get his head out of the work, which we need him doing the work. He’s so addicted to it that he’s covering up some deep, hidden trauma there.”
Taylor Dearden in “The Pitt.”
HBO Max
Dearden said with Dr. King in mind, “Some kind of meditation. Just breathe. Breathe.”
Patrick Ball in “The Pitt.”
Warrick Page/HBO MAX
Ball said with Dr. Langdon in mind, “It’s going to be okay – it’s going to be okay. Slow down.”
Katherine LaNasa in “The Pitt.”
HBO Max
LaNasa said with Evans in mind, “Girl, get some massages.”
Fiona Dourif in “The Pitt.”
HBO MAX
Dourif concluded with Dr. McKay in mind, “Cassie, you’re doing just fine – you’re doing just fine. Cassie is very close to the bone.”
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffconway/2025/08/27/the-pitt-actors-reveal-what-they-would-say-to-their-tv-characters/