Finally more good news for Scrubs fans. Five and a half months after the reboot of the beloved medical comedy secured series creator Bill Lawrence, the project has locked in star Zach Braff, sources tell Deadline. He will reprise his role as John “J.D.” Dorian in the Scrubs followup, which is in development at ABC from 20th Television. Reps for the network and studio declined comment.
The deal with Braff comes after months of touch-and-go negotiations that hit major hurdles over both money and Braff’s request for the series to film in Los Angeles and not Vancouver as originally planned, sources said. The impasse was so serious, there was a chance for the entire project to be, um, scrubbed, until the two sides recently came to an agreement. Because Scrubs is still in development, no filming location has been announced.
The Scrubs reboot is proving to be a highly complex project to put together from a dealmaking standpoint. It took months of negotiations with Warner Bros TV, where Lawrence is under an exclusive overall deal, to carve out Scrubs, allowing him to develop the followup for Disney’s 20th TV and ABC. (He won’t serve as Scrubs showrunner as he has four series for WBTV, Shrinking, Ted Lasso, Bad Monkey and the upcoming Steve Carell HBO comedy.)
Braff was next. With his deal now closed, 20th TV is expected to start making pacts with the other core original cast members, Sarah Chalke (Elliot Reid), Donald Faison (Christopher Turk), John C. McGinley (Perry Cox), as well as Judy Reyes (Carla Espinosa), who is a series regular on ABC/20th TV breakout new drama series High Potential.
Over the past year, Braff had shared his optimism about the Scrubs reboot, saying last August “I think it’s gonna happen.”
Lawrence told Deadline last fall that he envisions Scrubs 2.0 as a hybrid between a revival, revisiting original characters a decade and a half after the original series ended its run, and a reboot, revamping the original concept with new characters as the series is set to introduce new surgical interns.
Braff has continued his relationship with Lawrence post-Scrubs, earning DGA and Emmy nominations for directing Ted Lasso. He also has directed Season 2 and 3 episodes of Shrinking, did an arc on Bad Monkey as an actor and is currently directing the Untitled Steve Carell Project for HBO created by Lawrence and Scrubs writer-producer Matt Tarses.
In features, Braff recently wrapped the indie Clean Hands, based on the life of hero drug cop-turned- recovery advocate Kevin Simmers and his daughter Brooke, and will next be seen in Focus Features’ Girls Like Girls. Braff is repped by CAA, Range Media partners and attorney Ken Richman.
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