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Noah Wyle opened up about the lawsuit alleging the Max medical dramaThe Pitt, one of the top new shows of 2025, is a rip-off of Michael Crichton’s beloved Nineties TV hitER.
When sitting down with Variety for an interview published Wednesday and discussing his determination to create a show highlighting the work of first responders, the actor — who starred in both the Nineties show and the new hit — shared why he felt “profoundly sad and disappointed” by the allegations, which callsThe Pitt“a callous disregard for Crichton’s inception ofER.”
“This taints the legacy, and it shouldn’t have. At one point, this could have been a partnership,” said Wyle. “And when it wasn’t a partnership, it didn’t need to turn acrimonious. But on the 30th anniversary of ER, I’ve never felt less celebratory of that achievement than I do this year.”
The lawsuit was filed last August by Crichton’s widow, Sherri Crichton, against Warner Bros., producer John Wells, and Wyle. The complaint claimed that when Crichton sold Warner Bros. the screenplay for what became the pilot episode ofER, Warner Bros. promised that no subsequent productions derived fromERwould go forward without Crichton’s consent. The suit further alleged that after negotiating unsuccessfully with Crichton’s estate for nearly a year for the right to rebootER, Warner Bros. “simply moved the show from Chicago to Pittsburgh, rebranded itThe Pitt, and has plowed ahead without any attribution or compensation for Crichton and his heirs.”
When speaking to Variety, Wyle called the potential ER reboot a nonstarter — “we pivoted as far in the opposite direction as we could in order to tell the story we wanted to tell — and not for litigious reasons, but because we didn’t want to retread our own creative work.”
Still, he acknowledged that both shows both highlight the relationships between the cast and crew. “We see each other fall in love, get married, have children, get divorced,” he explained. “Those relationships transcend the screen and become palpable to an audience who wants to be part of that family. I’ve tried to create it in every job I’ve gone on, but with varying degrees of success.”
