There is an official release date for the return of Scrubs, the legendary medical-comedy series set in the Sacred Heart hospital of the fictional Californian city of Sandifrangeles (a mix of San Diego, San Francisco and Los Angeles).
The wait for the return of the funniest doctors on TV had become frantic a few months ago, when Variety revealed the long-awaited return, then officially confirmed, of the protagonist Zach Braff in the role of Doctor John Dorian, for his friends JD (and for Doctor Cox with any nickname aimed at underlining his softness and naivety). Afterwards, almost all the confirmations that we Scrubs fans were waiting for had arrived. But now, we’re really here: the cast has already done the first readings, the first episodes have been shot and, in fact, ABC has let us know when Scrubs 10, or Scrubs revival or whatever it will be called, will be released on TV and streaming on Hulu.
After years in which Braff and other cast members had expressed their willingness to return to wearing scrubs in the corridors of the Sacred Heart, in December 2024 news circulated of a first embryo of the revival in the works at ABC. With the creator of the original series Bill Lawrence who this time is the executive producer but not the showrunner: this is the agreement, or compromise, reached between Disney, which holds the intellectual property of Scrubs, and Warner Bros Television, with which Lawrence has a contract to work on the Apple TV+ series Shrinking (in which Bill Lawrence will reunite with another old acquaintance, Michael J. Fox, with whom he had worked in Spin City), Ted Lasso and Bad Monkey. The new showrunner is Aseem Batra (already among the screenwriters of the original series), while his colleague Tim Hobert, who co-wrote the pilot of the new season with Batra, left the role of co-showrunner due to creative differences and will remain as executive producer of only the first five episodes.
Here’s everything we know at the moment about the return of Scrubs
Scrubs 10 will happen: where we left off
It will therefore be the tenth season of the series, which debuted in 2001 on NBC, where it remained for seven seasons before being cancelled. It was then picked up and renewed by ABC for a season that was supposed to be the final one. Instead, ABC subsequently ordered a ninth season titled Scrubs: Med School, in which only John C. McGinley (Perry Cox) and Donald Faison (Chris Turk) were regular cast members, while Braff’s own JD appeared in only 6 of the 13 episodes. And no Scrubs fan has nostalgia for that season 9, light years away from the levels of the previous ones.
The cast of the Scrubs revival: who returns, who doesn’t, and the new members
In addition to Zach Braff and his JD, the reboot-remake-sequel-revival will also feature Faison and his Turk, Sarah Chalke (Elliot Reid), Judy Reyes (Carla Espinosa) and McGinley’s Doctor Cox, the latter two with recurring guest star roles. Robert Maschio (Todd) and Phill Lewis (Hooch) will also appear in the new season.
At the moment, confirmations of Ken Jenkins (Bob Kelso) and Neil Flynn (the janitor) have not yet arrived, although Bill Lawrence has stated that he would be happy to include them, especially the 84-year-old Jenkins, in the new season. Sam Lloyd will certainly be missed, the shy, harassed but excellent at singing lawyer Ted Buckland, who died prematurely in 2020 at just 56 years old.
Some time ago, when the reboot was still a hypothesis, Braff explained his availability and enthusiasm to Variety with these words: “What do I think of the idea of seeing my friends again and doing like 10 or 12 episodes or maybe one or two seasons and spending time laughing with everyone? It seems like a dream to me.” Which perhaps is now really becoming a reality.
The cast will however be enriched with new members compared to the original core. There should be no Med School season residents, although Lawrence said the door is open if any of them wanted to make an appearance, because “if you remember they would have had to specialize and then go around to various hospital facilities.”
The new cast members are first of all Vanessa Bayer (Saturday Night Live) in the role of Sibby, who runs a wellness program for the college and the staff of the Sacred Heart, and Joel Kim Booster (Nicholas from Loot) who will play Doctor Eric Park. The new interns are Ava Bunn (comedian of the improvisation group Upright Citizens Brigade) as Serena, Jacob Dudman (Fate: The Winx Saga) as Asher, David Gridley (All American) as Blake, Layla Mohammadi (Lioness) as Amara and Amanda Morrow (Law & Order: SVU) as Dashana.
Previews on the plot of the Scrubs reboot, and how the real JD and Elliot are doing
JD (Braff) and Turk (Faison) “wash” (as they say in medical jargon when you cleanse yourself before entering the operating room, in English “to scrub in”, hence the title of the series) together for the first time in a long time: medicine has changed, the residents have changed, but their friendship (their “bromance”) has stood the test of time. Characters new and old sail the waters of the Sacred Heart with laughter, passion and a few surprises along the way.
On the evolution of the protagonists, Braff said that his JD feels “overwhelmed by the system”, while Lawrence underlined that, even if Jd and Turk are still friends, it would be very strange to see them still behave as they did when they were twenty years younger, and therefore their optimism and their relationship will adapt to their current age.
By the way, Lawrence also revealed to TV Line how the real characters on which he based himself to create two of the protagonists of the sitcom are. “The real JD, Dr. Jonathan Doris, is still the medical advisor on the show, as well as a cardiologist and heart surgeon in Los Angeles. But the real Elliot, Doris’ wife, Dr. Dolly Klock, is no longer in the medical field because she wanted to do other equally philanthropic things, and she’s involved in the education of children and teenagers. So, watching how the system has changed by hitting some of these characters on the show hard, and how they still maintain their optimism about young people, has been really fun.” And, speaking of hard blows, the Hollywood medical facility where the series was filmed was also knocked down in real life, as JD said had happened to Sacred Heart at the beginning of the Med School season. Our favorites, therefore, will find themselves in a new structure. “I wonder if JD’s dreams, seen in the season 8 finale, have come true,” Lawrence further explained. For a refresher on that moment, here’s the video: Get your tissues ready.
When does the new season of Scrubs come out?
As officially announced by ABC with this video which takes up the legendary original theme song and in the text recalls JD’s daydreams, the new season of Scrubs will be released on TV on ABC and in streaming on Hulu from Wednesday 25 February 2026. At the moment the release of the new episodes has not been confirmed also in Italy, where they should be released on Disney+, of which Hulu is part.
