Johnny Kastl Poised To Return To ‘Scrubs’, Scott Foley Preview & More

EXCLUSIVE: Scrubs executive producer/showrunner Aseem Batra got most of the OGs on her wishlist for Season 2 of the ABC revival which she shared with Deadline at the end of Season 1 in April.

“Well, we’ve got Johnny Kastl, we’ve got Scott Foley, we would love to have him back, and, of course, Ken Jenkins,” Batra told Deadline at the time. “We want to see more of Neil Flynn. So we have quite a wishlist.”

Flynn’s Season 2 return as The Janitor for multiple episodes after his appearance in the Season 1 finale was confirmed in July, and Deadline in August broke the news that Foley will reprise his recurring role as Sean Kelly from the original series next season.

Now, Deadline can reveal that another Scrubs standout, Kastl, also is expected to be back for Season 2 in his first acting gig in almost two decades. Batra shared the probability of Kastl reprising his heavily recurring role as the highly inept Dr. Doug Murphy during an interview with Deadline tied to Scrubs‘ Sept. 30 Season 2 premiere.

“That that is my plan,” Batra said. “We’ll see how it all shakes up but we’re writing two more [episodes], and we have him planned in one of those last two.”

This week, Scrubs is slated to do a table read for Episode 8 of its 10-episode second season, which will film next, with Batra and her writing team still working on the scripts for Episodes 9 and 10.

What would make Kastl’s return particularly notable is the fact that he quit acting in 2009 as he wrapped his eight-episode arc on Scrubs to go to law school and has worked as an attorney and business executive since, most recently VP of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships for Acorn Finance.

Kastl could guest star on Scrubs alongside Foley who may appear in the Season 2 finale (More on that later).

Foley’s marine biologist Sean butted heads with J.D. (Zach Braff) while the former was dating Elliot (Sarah Chalke), resulting in one of Scrubs‘ signature lines, “Nobody cares, Sean,” which jealous J.D. frequently used on Sean.

“We wanted the fun of those dynamics again, he and J.D. have such a fun dynamic of not liking each other, but it’s like, have they grown a little? What’s going on there?,” Batra said about the idea behind bringing Foley back. “We look for chemistry in our cast, and they’ve always had great chemistry with Scott Foley. So bringing him back for some fun, and the challenges of dating after divorce; people are looking for different things now, and just seeing some of that come out too.”

In a recent interview with Deadline, Chalke provided another reason for Foley’s return.

“The writers were like, ‘How do we bring back Elliot’s neuroses?’,” she said. “And so they thought that Scott would be a good way to do that because now that Elliot’s more comfortable in her job and feels super confident as a doctor, this is kind of what shakes her and brings back a lot of her neurotic days.”

Foley is expected to make his return in Episode 203.

“It’s a short arc,” Batra said, adding, “That doesn’t mean we wouldn’t love to bring him back as much as possible. But it’s different telling stories in 10 episodes than it was telling stories when we had 20 plus,” a reference to the original series, which produced 22-25 episodes a year for its first six seasons.

“So things start to feel a little more compacted, and that’s why,” Batra continued. “But we hope that we’re playing the fun and the comedy in a way that people will enjoy with him.”

Foley has done two episodes so far.

“He may make another appearance, we just love him,” Batra said. “As you’re writing the finale, you kind of see how you might weave guest stars that you love back into the show.”

One guest star Batra and the rest of the Scrubs producing team love but have not been able to bring back in Season 2 is Ken Jenkins.

Batra in April confirmed the plan Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence had shared with Deadline in February to have Jenkins reprise his character as Dr. Kelso in the ABC revival’s second season.

That didn’t pan out, and Jenkins will not be in Season 2, Batra confirmed to Deadline.

“We all have to remember that when we reboot a show, we have to go with where people are in their lives and in their health and the things that are happening in their life,” she said. “So it’s not it’s not anything he can control or we can control, it’s just simply the situation. He’s doing great, but let’s all remember that, because we try to bring people back that we love, and it can’t always work with schedules or things happening in people’s lives.”

Scrubs star/executive producer Braff had a similar reaction when asked recently whether Jenkins, who is 86 and retired from acting, would return.

“The fans want this so much, and I so respect that, we do too, but I think we just also need to be respectful of his age,” he said. “I’ll keep trying, but I think, for currently where he’s at, it’s a bit of a big ask, I’ll just say that.”

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