ABC’s Scrubs revival starring Zach Braff (John “J.D.” Dorian), Donald Faison (Christopher Turk) and Sarah Chalke (Elliot Reid) is undergoing some cast changes heading into its second season.

Two prominent recurring players are leaving, Joel Kim Booster, who played scheming attending physician Dr. Kevin Park, and X Mayo as charge nurse Raymond. Meanwhile, as reported exclusively by Deadline, two actors are joining in major recurring roles: SNL alum John Higgins as Grant, the new Chief Resident, and Keyla Monterroso Mejia as surgical nurse Mimi. (Additionally, Tamera Mowry-Housley will guest star Dr. Steffie, a pediatric doctor.)

Braff explained to Deadline the rationale behind Park’s departure and Grant’s arrival as a way to replicate the dynamic between Braff’s J.D. and Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley) on the original series, crediting Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence with the idea for the change-up.

“Joel was incredible,” Braff said. “I think that we wanted to try and find a nemesis for J.D. who was underneath him. Bill Lawrence had this idea that that, well, there’s no one above J.D. except an administrator, and we’ve seen that before. It might be fun if the person driving him nuts is coming from underneath him, a chief resident, and so that was rethinking where the thorn in JD’s side is.

“Obviously JD needs conflict, right, for the story to work, things are going very well for J.D., that’ll get boring quick. We need some conflict for drama and comedy, and I think the notion was: what if we introduce a fun thorn in his side, who is actually underneath him and drives him nuts, in the same way that J.D. drove Dr. Cox nuts.”

Mayo’s exit was particularly surpassing as charge nurses Dubois (Michael James Scott) and Raymond (Mayo) were two of the revival’s breakout characters in Season 1. Turns out the departure was not story-driven but logistical.

“We would have loved to have X on more,” Braff said. “She’s just working so much and so busy, and wasn’t really fully available. But we are bringing in more nurses and more characters. Michael James Scott really just popped, we all love him so much. He’s so friggin’ funny. Every single line he says on the show makes us all laugh, and so he really, really is shining. The writers keep writing to him, and I can’t imagine an episode without him. He’s so lovely to be around, and such a good actor.”

The reason Mayo’s schedule came into play is that she and most of the Scrubs cast are recurring guest stars. As such, they are not under contracts and their services are subject to availability.

In Season 1 of the revival, only Braff, Faison and Chalke were series regular. They are being joined in Season 2 by Ava Bunn, who has been promoted from a recurring. She plays one of the new interns, Sam Tosh.

“I think the Ava Bunn storyline — she plays Tosh on the show — is something that needs to be explored,” Faison said. “I don’t know if you’re on social media, but we’re on social media, and a lot of my diagnoses come from the doctors on social media or the things that they say, and that’s something to talk about. That is a new wave of getting information. Google used to be the way to do it, I’m going to Google all of my ailments and see what happens. Now it’s a new era, and a lot of people get their information from things like Instagram or Meta or ChatGPT. So, adding her to the show as the fourth in all of this is, she popped last year, and so here we go, and we’re excited for her too. This is something new.”

Added Chalke, “Yeah, she’s great. She comes in with such great ideas, she’s improving all the time, and never delivers the same line twice. She has such confidence in her own skin for such a young age. It’s really cool.”

Bunn’s character Sam Tosh got more attention than other new characters last season as she emerged as a wide-eyed intern standout in the vein of J.D. from the first eight seasons and Lucy (Kerry Bishé) from Season 9. Does Bunn’s promotion to a series regular signal a handover of narrator duties from J.D. to Tosh like it happened with him and Lucy in Season 9?

“No. It’s interesting. The old show was about the interns, right? Well, now the show is about us,” Braff said, “So, unlike that Season 9, the show is not going to pivot to being about a new cast of interns.”

With returning Scrubs fan favorites taking the spotlight, the show has not been able to sufficiently service the new cast, with most interns yet to make an impression as we know very little about them. The series is looking to correct that in Season 2.

“One thing we did last year was we tried to service all the interns in every episode, and I think what we learned was we didn’t have the time in 21 minutes to really give them enough story,” Braff said. “So this year, we’re not putting each intern in every episode, but giving them their own episodes to shine, and I think that’s a better strategy for the audience, getting their their claws into them and getting to know them better and embracing them more. With the exception of Ava, who’s been made a regular and she’ll be in every episode.”

For medical intern Tosh and surgical intern Dashana Trainor (Amanda Morrow), main storylines have been their relationships with mentors Elliot and Turk, respectively.

“For Elliot, she picks up again in Season 2, where she’s mentoring Tosh, and, obviously, they’ve all become such great doctors and are really looking forward to this new chapter of being mentors,” Chalke said about Elliot, J.D. and Turk. “Elliot had a bit of a journey last season trying to figure out the balance of how do you mentor this kid who’s way too hard on her, and then pulled back, and is now giving her some more rope and recognizing what a good doctor she is and is becoming.”

Said Faison, “With Turk, Dashana is already an example of excellence, she’s already at the top of her game, she’ll have Turk’s job in a few years. She’s that good of a surgeon, that good of a doctor already. And so I think Turk is taking her for granted. She’s making his life a lot easier, and he’s not even paying attention to it because he’s so stuck in his own mental health issues. So he’s got somebody there who should be inspiring him like no other, but he can’t see past his own reflection in the mirror to see that this girl is everything that he’s been asking for, and so, whereas these guys are thriving, being mentors for their doctors, he’s not even paying attention to how good she is.”

Scrubs Season 2 launches on Sept. 30 with a two-episode premiere on ABC and streaming next day on Hulu.

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