The Pitt S3: Shabana Azeez reveals shocking ER exit

HBO Max medical drama The Pitt returned for its third season, and Shabana Azeez gave a painful insight for the fans of the show, as they are about to lose another fan favorite in this season.

The actress told  Bustlr at the Beach TV Fest, “I’m not in the ER this season. I’ve done my ER rotation, so I’m doing my psychiatry rotation”. She further added, “It’s a very different vibe for me. And I’m scared and nervous. But it’s an honour to be able to show that part of medicine”.

The Pitt followed doctors, nurses, and medical students during a single 15-hour shift in the emergency department of the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. Noah Wyle leads the ensemble cast as senior attending physician Dr Michael “Robby” Robinavitch alongside Katherine LaNasa, Sepideh Moafi, Patrick Ball, Fiona Dourif, Taylor Dearden, Isa Briones, Gerran Howell, and Azeez.

The series proved popular with both critics and audiences, going on to receive 13 Primetime Emmy nominations in 2025 and winning five awards, including outstanding drama series.

Azeez’s Victoria Javadi has been part of the cast since the series’s first season, where she was introduced as a third-year medical student. Over the course of the series, Javadi has emerged as one of the show’s most popular characters, with the 20-year-old child prodigy struggling to step out of the shadow of her physician parents while growing in confidence as a doctor and finding her footing.

Her move to psychiatry shouldn’t come as a shock to regular series watchers, with the second season finale showing Javadi questioning whether emergency medicine was the right long-term path for her after witnessing the emotional toll the ER was taking on both staff and patients.

Towards the end of the episode, she asks Dr Robby if she could pursue emergency psychiatry as a specialty, who tells her she can “do anything that she puts her mind to”.

Azeez’s confirmation suggested that season 3 will pick up after that decision, with Javadi now undertaking a psychiatry rotation as part of her medical training rather than working full-time in the emergency department. This could likely mean that Azeez isn’t leaving the show entirely, but will continue appearing through the hospital’s psychiatry department and in cases requiring psychiatric consultation in the ER.

Azeez’s news comes as fans are still coming to terms with the departure of another fan favourite senior resident, Dr Samira Mohan, played by Supriya Ganesh. Ahead of the season finale, news broke that Ganesh was not returning for the new season, expected to premiere in January 2027.

Mohan has attributed her leaving to a “creative decision” made by the producers. “They work with such intention on the show and make all the choices that they make for that reason, so I think it’s better to ask them for answers,” Ganesh told The Los Angeles Times.

First season’s run also ended with the departure of Dr Heather Collins, played by Tracy Ifeachor, who left the emergency department after suffering a miscarriage during her shift. Ifeachor did not return for season two following what producers described as a creative decision.

Series creator R. Scott Gemmill has said that the new season will feature an approximately four-month time jump to November.

“We wanted a shorter jump; less story has transpired in between seasons,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “We wanted to do cold weather because we hadn’t. We’ve done summer, and we did September during  season one, and we figured it’d be nice to do colder weather and what that brings into the ER and what sort of emergencies change seasonally.”