The Good Doctor has brought another star on board as a series regular for its fifth season, and it could spell good news for Dr Audrey Lim.
The ABC medical drama’s season finale, which aired in two parts on May 31 and June 7 in the US, introduced us to Dr Mateo Rendón Osma, played by Osvaldo Benavides, and it has now been confirmed that he’ll be back on a more regular basis for the show’s next season.
According to Deadline, Osvaldo Benavides is the third star to have been promoted to the main cast list for the new season, and will return as a series regular in season 5.
The two-part finale saw the St Bonaventure team head to Guatemala on a mission to help patients at a rural hospital there. Local trauma surgeon Mateo and Audrey (Christina Chang) struck up an immediate bond and the pair were brought closer together when they were kidnapped during a taxi ride and then teamed up to deliver a baby.
Mateo and Audrey later ended up spending the night together and it looks like their romance could become more long-term now that Mateo is set to become a bigger part of the cast too. There’s likely to be plenty more to discover about the doctor’s past as well.
Netflix’s Monarca star Benavides isn’t the only star who’s been promoted, with Noah Galvin (Dr Asher Wolke) and Bria Samoné Henderson (Dr Jordan Allen) also joining the main cast for season five.
Sadly, one character who will be missing from the next season is Dr Claire Browne, with original cast member Antonia Thomas having departed the show at the end of its fourth season as Claire accepted a new job at the Guatemalan clinic.
“It was a really, really difficult decision, and leaving, I have to say, is a bittersweet thing for me because the last four years have been absolutely incredible,” Thomas said of her departure.
However, there’s still a chance that we could see Claire again, as she revealed that she has had “conversations” with her co-star Freddie Highmore, who plays Dr Shaun Murphy, about coming back one day.
“Really for me, if there was more time in the year to be able to shoot the show and to be able to go off and do some of the other things that I’m wanting to explore now, I’d do both,” she said.
“It has not been an easy decision for me to leave, so I absolutely would love to come back every now and then and say hi, bring Claire’s skills from Guatemala and her stories. I’m very much looking forward to that.”
