‘The Pitt’s Battle With Michael Crichton Estate Heading To Trial

The Pitt is deep into production for its upcoming third season, but the Noah Wyle starring Emmy winning drama will have to scrub up for court next year too.

Two months after hearing arguments from Pitt producers and the Michael Crichton Estate over whether the HBO Max series is derivative of ER, a panel of appeal court judges has affirmed a lower court ruling on the two-year old case. All of which means, The Pitt and the now Skydance-owned Warner Bros is heading to a jury trial in L.A. Superior Court.

With discovery still to come in the clash with widow Sherri Crichton, on behalf of John Michael Crichton Trust’s Roadrunner JMTC, a trial could come as early as next summer — unless the parties settle. A settlement doesn’t seem impossible, but very unlikely with all the bitterness and bad blood between the principals.

The widow Crichton dragged the yet-to-debut The Pitt into court in August 2024 in a breach of contract action. Long conflict short, the estate of the ER creator and Jurassic Park author that the Pittsburgh, PA-set medical drama was birthed by John Wells, WB and gang after negotiations to reboot the 15-season NBC medical blockbuster fell apart. At the time, the defendants essentially treated the suit as sour grapes and a money grab by the Estate.

Fronted by ER vet Wyle as a emergency room physician, the real-time running The Pitt proved a critical and commercial hit for HBO Max once it launched in early 2025.

Attorneys for the medical drama were blunt in their POV in an appeal filing in October 2025 after LASC Judge Wendy Chang previously denied WB’s anti-SLAPP motion to toss the matter. “There was no evidence that The Pitt was made by copying from or using ER, so there was no evidence that The Pitt was ‘derivative’ of ER — even if the copyright test for a ‘derivative work’ does not apply,” declared an appellants’ opening brief filed on October 28 last year by WBTV, Wyle, EP Well, R. Scott Gemmill and others.

On September 8, Pitt producers and WBTV lawyer Ted Boutrous appeared before Judges Curtis Karnow, Rashida Adams and Mark Hanasono. Boutrous pitched that Sherri Crichton actually had no idea if the HBO Max show violated rights provisions in a 1994 agreement with the famed author because she sued before The Pitt came out and she’d never even seen it. The Gibson Dunn lawyer added: “This is exactly the kind of case that deserves a quick dismissal, because it’s intruding on creative expression and free speech.”

Clearly the Appeals Court disagreed.

Reps for WBTV and Pitt producers did not respond today to Deadline’s request for comment on the ruling.

Season 3 of The Pitt is set to drop in January 2027.