The trades are all reporting that Tracy Ifeachor, who plays Dr. Michelle Collins on The Pitt, will not be returning for season two. At the same time, Variety also adds that the decision to leave was a “creative one” and that Ifeachor did not leave of her own accord. The word for that is “fired.” “Laid off,” or “let go,” if you want to be more diplomatic.
Ifeachor’s Collins was a hugely popular character in the first season, who actually left the series before the end of the first season. She had a miscarriage midway through the season, but continued to work. After delivering a breech baby, the stress of the day caught up with her, and Dr. Robby let her go home. She could not be reached during the mass shooting event, and no one questioned the plot turn at the time, but I suspect The Pitt may reached their “creative” decision to write Dr. Collins out of the show then.
There are rumors going around on Twitter and Reddit that Ifeachor is part of a very conservative church in the UK that performs gay exorcism. Other rumors suggest that she did not agree ideologically with certain storylines on the series (particularly the abortion storyline).
Those rumors have not been confirmed, and I can’t find any confirmation of them. For now, it’s just idle social-media gossip. However, it was also announced yesterday that Ifeachor had been cast in the latest M. Night Shyamalan film, Remain, which Shyamalan wrote with Nicholas Sparks. She joins the previously cast Jake Gyllenhaal and Phoebe Dynevor. There could have been scheduling conflicts, although had that been the case, it seems unlikely that Variety would have written that she was not leaving of her own accord.
People are also just digging up anything at this point, but someone did point to a series of red-carpet interviews with the cast of The Pitt where everyone spoke glowingly of Noah Wyle, but Icheachor could only say, “I’ve watched him for so many years. What can I say?”
Regardless of what Iceachor’s politics may or may not be, the loss of the character is a huge blow to the series.
