The Pitt Almost Got A Bizarre Storyline That Would Have Broken The Internet

"The Pitt" is, for the most part, a pretty grounded (and medically accurate) show. The HBO Max original, which is not a spin-off of "ER" and began its run in January 2025, takes place "in real time," meaning that the first season's 15-episode run takes place over 15 hours of an emergency room shift led by Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch (played by Noah Wyle, who also works on the series as an executive producer). During a recent panel, though (via Vulture), Wyle and his collaborator R. Scott Gemmill, who serves as showrunner, said they considered something sort of out-of-pocket for season 2.

Though Gemmill said that the show has "only begun to scratch the surface" of Dr. Robby and his colleagues, the real-time conceit means they don't have to employ dumb tropes like "evil twin" or "weather machine." Wyle, though, corrected his colleague, saying Gemmill did "pitch evil twin, technically." How?

"The idea was at the very end, one of the furries comes in and we're going to take their hood off and it's Noah, without a beard, and it's his brother— it's just like the end of the show," Gemmill said, before saying none of the other writers went for it: "Didn't go over in the room as well as I thought it would."

This sounds, obviously, ridiculous, unless you're aware, as I am, that there's a massive furry convention in Pittsburgh every summer. As a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, I know all too well that Anthrocon, a massive and very well-known gathering of furries, takes place in early July in the Steel City each year; in 2025, it's set to take place from July 3-6. "The Pitt" season 2 takes place on July 4, presumably in 2025. This could actually have been a thing if Gemmill's colleagues hadn't brought down the hammer, and I, for one, am a little miffed that Wyle won't be donning an animal suit and following "himself" around.

Even though the furry plotline that probably would have sent social media into an absolutely wild tailspin isn't happening, we should still all be really excited about season 2 of "The Pitt," which will, as I said, take place over a hot, long holiday in the city of Pittsburgh. (Yes, the southwestern Pennsylvania city is frigid in the winter, but it also gets really hot during the summer! It's special like that!) If you take a second to think about all of the possibilities for July 4 emergencies on "The Pitt," you'll probably think about firework incidents, grill accidents, heatstroke, dehydration, or even swimming incidents (people tend to gather around pools on the 4th, after all). There's no question that R. Scott Gemmill, Noah Wyle, and their colleague John Wells — who were moved to craft "The Pitt" after all working on "ER" decades ago — have some wild ideas up their collective sleeve, though I guess we can take furries off the proverbial table.

To be totally honest, a whole throughline about furries might feel a little out of place on a show that's as down-to-earth — and, frequently, serious — as "The Pitt," though that's not to say that the show doesn't have lighter moments. (The ER doctors taking a photo of a girl with a fork stuck through her nose in the last moments of the season 1 finale comes to mind as a scene with a little more lift and humor.) Still, it seems like Gemmill was overruled ... and honestly, whatever we get from season 2 of "The Pitt" will be well worth it.

"The Pitt" season 1 is streaming on HBO Max now, and season 2 is expected to arrive in January 2026.