‘Doc’ Gets Major Cast Shakeup Ahead of Season 3

Doc is making some changes for Season 3.

The Fox medical drama was renewed in March.

There is a major shakeup with the cast on the heels of the Season 2 finale, which aired on Tuesday. According to Deadline, Charlotte Fountain-Jardim is out as a series regular, after playing Katie, the daughter of Molly Parker’s Amy, since the beginning of the hit series. She was initially a recurring star during the first season before being upped to series regular for Season 2. In the latest season, she took a college orientation road trip with her parents, and now Katie is off to Northwestern. This means that Fountain-Jardim will no longer be a series regular for Season 3, but she is expected to guest star.

Executive producer and co-showrunner Hank Steinberg stressed to the outlet that Katie will very much remain part of Doc, even despite being in college. “We love the character, and we adore Charlotte, so she will be in the show, but she will not be living at home; she’ll be off in Chicago at school,” he said. “So she will be in the show as needed.”

Also out is Felicity Huffman. She signed a one-year series regular deal for Season 2 to play Amy’s mentor and friend, Dr. Joan Ridley. This follows what the show did for Season 1, bringing on Scott Wolf for a season-long recurring arc, but he was ultimately brought back for Season 2. Unfortunately, that will not be the case for Joan, who was seen passing away in hospice care at the end of the finale.

Meanwhile, fans may not have seen the last of Scott Wolf’s Dr. Richard Miller. He’s a character fans just love to hate. Although he announced his departure from Westside, Steinberg said they are “leaving” his possible return “up in the air.” He continued, “We love Scott, we love the character, we will see If there’s a way to bring him back in a way that make sense. We love him, and the audience loves him.”

The Season 2 finale also saw the death of Nurse Lucy (Paulyne Wei), who succumbed to a deadly virus. Lucy was a consistent recurring character on the series, with Wei appearing in 17 episodes. Conni Miu, who plays Nurse Liz, has also been recurring consistently, along with Clarie Armstrong as Nurse Julie. Steinberg addressed the possibility of Miu being upped to series regular for Season 3, saying they “love Conni, and we love that character of Liz.”

“How that develops, we’ll see,” he continued. “We have a lot of characters to service in 44 minutes. But it’s 22 episodes, and it’s part of filling out the world more and more. We gave Nurse Julie a huge storyline early in the season, and Claire is an incredible actress, and that was such a fun episode.”

As for Julie, who was a patient in the episode and got a romantic storyline, “The more the show goes on, the more those supporting characters get opportunities to shine and to get dimensionalized,” Steinberg said. “And that’s part of the fun of the show, so we will see as things develop.”

It’s possible that more confirmations on the casting will be revealed in the coming months once production starts and when Season 3 gets closer to its premiere. For now, both seasons of Doc are streaming on Hulu. Season 3 will be coming soon to Fox.