The premiere for the seventh season of The Good Doctor has aired, revealing how Hill Harper has exited the show.
It was revealed in November that Harper would depart from his role as Dr Marcus Edwards before the conclusion of the series, with the scene being set in the season six finale as the character resigned as president of St Bonaventure Hospital.
His exit was confirmed in Tuesday’s (February 20) premiere, with the character’s whereabouts being confirmed in a conversation between Nurse Dalisay Villanueva (Elfina Luk) and Dr Audrey Lim (Christina Chang).
“Marcus sends greetings from Spain,” remarks Villanueva to Lim, with the latter responding: “Oh! I thought he was at a meditation retreat in Vietnam?” Villanueva then confirms Harper’s location, saying: “He was… and now he’s walking the Camino de Santiago.”
Executive producer Liz Friedman explained the narrative choices regarding Andrews in an interview with TVLine, saying: “Since he got divorced, Andrews has been juggling a lot [at the hospital] and trying to find a fit for himself.
“He was involved with Salen (Rachel Bay Jones) – that, obviously, was not meant to be – and he had a relationship with Villanueva, but I think the job has been very subsuming for him. To have him take a moment, having stepped down, to go and find himself, seemed like the right thing for the character.”
Harper, who played Andrews from the show’s premiere in 2017, revealed that their exit was due to the prioritisation of their political ambitions, with the actor running for a US senate seat in Michigan.
“Hill Harper feels strongly that there is a crisis in American democracy — too often, government only works for the rich and powerful while the rest of us struggle to find a voice,” read a statement from Harper’s campaign spokesperson.
“Hill is dedicating his efforts full time to fixing that, and he’s running for the US Senate as an active union member to give working people more of a voice in Congress.”
