ABC medical drama The Good Doctor has wrapped up on its second season after becoming an instant TV hit.
The show, which follows Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore), a young autistic surgeon with savant syndrome working at the San Jose St Bonaventure Hospital, became the most-watched drama on network TV just a month after it landed, beating the likes of This Is Us and NCIS to come out on top.
The first half of its debut season pulled in roughly 17 million viewers for each episode in the US. And season two also shaped up nicely, which is amazing when you consider that it was rejected twice before being given the green light.
So with that in mind, here’s everything we know about season three so far.
The Good Doctor season 3 air date: When’s it coming back?
ABC has now confirmed that The Good Doctor will officially return on Monday, September 23 in the US.
And that means those of us in the UK, who can watch the show on Sky Witness, are likely to get it around a month later.
The Good Doctor season 3 trailer: When can we see it?
Now that season three has been confirmed, the first trailer has dropped, asking the question “Will Shaun Find Love?”
The Good Doctor season 3 plot: What will happen?
The season two finale hinted that love would be in the air at the San Jose St Bonaventure Hospital in season three and the first trailer absolutely confirms this.
Title cards ask the question: “Mondays this fall… will Shaun find love?” and a big focus in the new footage is Shaun’s date with Carly.
In what we’ve seen so far, it looks like the date starts off rocky, but then it’s hinted that the pair will overcome this tension and maybe even lean in for a kiss.
Of course, everyone at the hospital is just as keen as us to find out what happened, as seen when Dr Alex Park (Will Yun Lee) asks about the date in front of the other staff.
The Good Doctor season 3 cast: Who’s coming back?
The drama isn’t afraid to cut popular names from the fold. Chuku Modu, who played Dr Jared Kalu, didn’t return for season two after his character received an offer from a hospital in Colorado.
And Beau Garrett, who played hospital attorney Jessica Preston, also moved on to pastures new, so there’s every chance that more fan favorites could be absent from the next chapter.
It seems likely that Dr Jackson Han will no longer remain a recurring character too given that he was removed from his position as chief of surgery in the last episode of season two. However, showrunner David Shore hinted to Entertainment Weekly that actor Daniel Dae Kim could still appear again in the future:
“I liked the character and had fun with it, and I thought Daniel did a great job. The arc that we were dealing with is now complete, but that doesn’t mean the character can’t come back, and I very much would be open to this.”
But one character that the show couldn’t live without is its star, the good doctor himself Shaun Murphy, played by Freddie Highmore of Bates Motel and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory fame.
We could also see returns for the rest of the main cast, which includes Antonia Thomas as surgical resident Dr Claire Browne, Nicholas Gonzalez as attending surgeon Dr Neil Melendez, Hill Harper as Dr Marcus Andrews, a hospital board member and head of the surgical department , Tamlyn Tomita as Allegra Aoki, hospital chairman and vice president, and Richard Schiff as Dr Aaron Glassman, Shaun’s surrogate father, as well as a surgeon and former hospital president.
Will Yun Lee and Fiona Gubelmann, who play surgical residents Alex Park and Morgan Reznick, were promoted to series regulars in season two along with Christina Chang as Dr Audrey Lim, and Paige Spara as Lea, Shaun’s love interest and neighbor.
But like we said, anything can change.
Despite Glassman finding out that his supposedly inoperable brain cancer was actually a low-grade glioma that could be treated, creator David Shore warned fans that he is not entirely in the clear.
“This is a show about medicine, and we have guest stars come in and get sick and get better and whatever,” he told IndieWire. “How do our people deal with that? How is Dr Glassman going to deal with his illness going forward?
“How is Dr Murphy going to deal with a sick mentor? What is that going to do to their relationship? What challenges is that going to present? I want to fully explore that.”
