NBC medical drama Brilliant Minds announced two new members of its principal cast Monday morning, according to report by Deadline’s Rosy Cordero. Both Brian Altemus (Mean Girls, Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin) and John Clarence Stewart (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, Luke Cage) will join the series, which released its first season to positive reviews last autumn.
Brilliant Minds, which draws loose inspiration from the literary nonfiction of revolutionary scientist Oliver Sacks, puts viewers inside the mind of fictional neurologist Oliver Wolf, portrayed by Zachary Qunito (Star Trek, Heroes). While seeking to unlock the mysteries of the human mind through their work at Bronx General Hospital, Wolf and his coworkers are forced to confront the possibility that the hardest brains for them to understand might be one another’s.
Per Deadline, Altemus, who is perhaps best known for his role as Luke Friedman on Netflix’s cancelled 2020 teen drama Grand Army, will play Dr. Charlie Porter, “the new neurology resident who is guarded, competitive and hiding something from his fellow doctors.” Porter sees medicine “not as a calling, but a sport,” setting him up to butt heads with Bronx General’s more magnanimous members.
Stewart, meanwhile, will play Dr. Anthony Thorne, “a mid-career ER doctor who’s grown a little too comfortable with the maxim that emergency medicine is blue-collar work.” Deadline writes that Stewart’s Thorne is someone that believes “helping a little for all is better than doing the most for a few,” which is sure to put him “in direct conflict” with Dr. Wolf.
While it draws some inspiration from Oliver Sack’s aforementioned books, Brilliant Minds is also the brainchild of Michael Grassi, who has served as a producer on everything from Riverdale to Supergirl. In an interview with NBC, Grassi stated that he wanted to subvert the typical problem/solution formula that most medical dramas follow while creating the series.
“I think we’ve seen a lot of medical shows where it’s about the diagnosis and the cure, and then the patient is just sent off to live their life,” Grassi remarked to NBC. “But I think that’s not necessarily true for a lot of medicine and on our show, specifically, when there isn’t a cure it’s more about how our doctors help that person find a way forward or find purpose, or take something that maybe society perceives as something that’s a disadvantage, and maybe help the patient see it as a potential superpower, which is something that Oliver Sacks did a lot with his patients, and we explore that a lot.”
Season two of Brilliant Minds will premiere on NBC sometime this fall, while season one is available now for free on NBC.com.