6 ‘ER’ Stars Who Should Appear on ‘The Pitt’ Next — And Our Pitched Storylines (POLL)

The critically acclaimed hit The Pitt won big at the Emmys this year, taking home awards for Outstanding Drama Series — the first medical drama to do so since ER did in 1996 — and Best Actor in a Drama for Noah Wyle playing Dr. Robby. And we can’t help but hope to see some familiar faces from Wyle’s ER days as Dr. John Carter show up on his HBO Max series.

It wouldn’t be a first. For example, Tracy Vilar, who played patient Doris in two episodes of ER, is now clerk Lupe on The Pitt, and Shawn Hatosy, who recurs as Dr. Abbot (and won the Emmy Best Guest Actor in a Drama), guest starred on ER. But there are certainly some ER series regulars we’d love to see guest star on The Pitt, and we have ideas. Read on for ours, take the poll below, then head to the comments section with your thoughts.

Eriq La Salle

Eriq La Salle‘s Peter Benton was Carter’s first mentor, the one who got him to go to rehab when he became addicted to drugs after he was stabbed, and the one who made sure that the doctors performing his kidney transplant were on top of everything. Scenes with Wyle and La Salle together on ER were always a highlight, and we can’t help but want to see the two back onscreen together.

While it might be great to see the two go head-to-head with La Salle playing a patient (or patient’s loved one) who disagrees with Robby, we’d rather see them capitalize on the ease with which these two act together and have him as someone with history with Robby, perhaps another doctor who used to work at PTMC (Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center) and maybe moved on to the private sector. Bonus: We also need to see La Salle direct an episode of The Pitt, especially after seeing what he’s done across the Dick Wolf shows, including a oner of an interrogation on FBI.

Anthony Edwards

Helping to guide a young Carter in his early days in the ER was Anthony Edwards‘ Mark Greene. “You set the tone,” he told him, words that Carter would go on to pass along to others. (Carter was also the one to read the letter that alerted the rest of the ER staff that Greene had died.)

Why not have Edwards show up as a patient who’s been in and out of PTMC (and someone Robby has crossed paths with), but not for something serious — because we’ll be honest: We can’t watch Edwards die again on a medical drama. But if he were to guest star, and no matter who he’d play, one of them would have to say something about “setting the tone.” We don’t care about the context.

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Ming-Na Wen

One of our favorite dynamics on ER was that between Carter and Jing-Mei (Ming-Na Wen) — especially him there for her when she gave birth. And so to see even a bit of the two together again would be great.

And while, yes, it would be great for an ER vet to act opposite Wyle, that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case with every guest star, though anyone who does appear on the show is likely to cross paths with Robby at least once. She could portray someone who has served with Abbot and just so happens to be brought to — or stops by — PTMC for a reason. It is, after all, the Fourth of July weekend…

Maura Tierney

Before there were the love triangles across TV today, there was Carter, Abby (Maura Tierney), and Kovac (Goran Visnjic), and Carter was the one who lost out. But Wyle and Tierney were great onscreen together, and it would be fun to see their characters be a bit antagonistic.

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And so that’s why we think it would be great to bring in Tierney as the hospital’s lawyer; we are already meeting its CEO (Victor Rivas Rivers) and saw how Robby was with chief medical officer Gloria (Michael Hyatt) in Season 1. Just imagine how he’d be with someone from the legal department.

Kellie Martin

In one of TV’s best episodes ever, Carter and his former med student Lucy (Kellie Martin) were stabbed by a patient; she died from her injuries. Because we can’t help but so closely associate the two together to that tragedy, here’s another instance where a brief encounter might be the way to go.

Why not have Martin guest star as a mother of a patient who clashes with one of the doctors (maybe Isa Briones’ Santos?), and have Robby only briefly steps in. It would give the ER reunion we’d love but not make the storyline all about it.

Goran Visnjic

Carter and Kovac may have both been interested in the same woman, but what was also memorable about their characters on ER was Carter going to Africa to bring home Kovac’s body when he thought he’d been killed (a standout episode). And since, we’ll be honest, we’re likely not going to get Wyle and Visnjic reuniting on Leverage: Redemption — the former plays Harry Wilson, and the latter was one of the bad guys during the original run — let’s see them together on The Pitt.

Why not have Visnjic come in as a surgeon who, unexpectedly, doesn’t clash with Robby? After all, Robby could use some friends after what happened with Langdon (Patrick Ball) — though Wyle told us he’d never use that word for the other doc — last season.

But what do you think? Do you want to see some ER vets on The Pitt? Vote in the poll below, then head to the comments section.

The Pitt, Season 2, January 2026, HBO Max

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