‘New Amsterdam’: Ryan Eggold Talks Max’s Relationships With Helen and Wilder, Potential Spinoff

It’s been almost two years since New Amsterdam ended, but there’s already been talk of a potential sequel series, following Dr. Max Goodwin’s (Ryan Eggold) adult daughter, who took over as medical director in the series finale flash-forwards. Should that or any other continuation come to pass, could we see Eggold step back into Max’s “how can I help?” shoes?

“I don’t know a lot about what they’ve got cooking, but the answer is whatever David Schulner calls and asks me to do the answer most likely is yes because he’s just a beautiful human being and a great writer, and we made a great show together,” Eggold told TV Insider when he stopped by our office to talk Cross. “And that group of people was just incredibly special. And I realize it more and more as time goes on. So, yeah, again, I have no idea, but I love those guys and I really believed in the message in the heart of that show, and so I would happily support.”

He pointed out that that’s not the only potential spinoff: “We could have done a whole Iggy [Tyler Labine] section of just psych, New Amsterdam Psych, Jocko [Sims‘ Floyd], Janet [Montgomery‘s Lauren], everybody on the show, Freema [Agyeman‘s Helen], it was so fantastic.”

New Amsterdam ended with Max leaving behind the hospital for a job in Geneva with the World Health Organization. But chances are that’s not where he stayed for long. “You know Max. I think he probably was onto the next thing, always on the move,” according to Eggold.

What the series finale did not establish was whether Max ended up with his ex-fiancée Helen or new love Wilder (Sandra Mae Frank). And Eggold is diplomatic in his answer when we try to find out who he thinks he ended up with; after all, Max went to Europe, where Helen was, but he also left the keys to the hospital to Wilder.

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“Really, I think he ended up with Luna,” he said, adding how important that father-daughter relationship was. “I think that’s the woman he’s supposed to end up with, with his wife gone. Playing those scenes with Freema was a beautiful rare thing. And with Sandra Mae, who’s such an incredible actress and getting to learn some ASL with her and her being gracious enough to welcome me into that world and hold my hand through it was great. But I always thought he’s a father, he’s a single father now. So really, it’s about her. It’s about the next generation.”

As Eggold shared, there were aspects of Max’s relationships with both women that stood out.

“With Helen, there was a lot of passion. I think they both ignited each other in a certain way, and I think they were really honest with each other in a certain way. And there was some kind of spontaneity to that that was really, really fun to explore. And I think it was kind of perhaps a wilder love, which is an amazing pun. It was completely unintentional,” he realized as he spoke. “Then with Wilder, I think it was more based on, I don’t know, trust, and there was a comfort there and a kindness and a compassion and a partnership and a dependability, and things like that that also are very important. Either way, Max is an incredibly lucky guy and they are two incredibly smart, capable women, so it was a great place to be.”

New Amsterdam ended its run with a shortened fifth season, and Eggold acknowledged that it “would’ve been nice to have a full final” one. “We kind of had to race to the finish line and didn’t get to wrap things up, I think, in the way that we perhaps could have with more time—although I think the way it ended was lovely. I think David and Peter [Horton] and everybody did an absolutely fantastic job with the show.”

But, if he could have had more time to close out the show, at the top of his wish list would’ve been to have Agyeman back “and figure that out. Without going into detail, we discussed that. But life is life.”

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There was one scene that he always wanted to do and they never did, he revealed. He wanted “Jocko and I having a beer because Jocko and I became really close friends on that show and are to this day, and we were always in the hospital doing doctor stuff, and I was like, ‘Can we see two guys sitting talking about their love life and their thing as guys do?’ Because that was sort of reflective of Jocko and I at the time. I’m going to do a spinoff just to do that one scene. We have one episode, one scene. It’s four and a half minutes. I hope you love it. We debut in the fall on NBC. It’s called Max and Floyd Get a Beer, and it’s going to be a great show,” he joked.

Eggold is currently doing a play with one of his former costars, Daniel Dae Kim, who did return briefly in the final season. “Daniel’s an excellent actor and was so great on the show, and particularly when Max and Helen were having their relationship to throw Daniel into that was a wonderful complication. And he’s a gifted actor,” he said. “I’m doing a play with Daniel now, which he asked me to do very graciously, and I’m thrilled to be a part of that.”

Since his Cross character did end up wandering a hospital hallway at one point, we had to have a bit of fun and ask what he thought a run-in of Ed Ramsey and Max would look like. “Hopefully [Max] wouldn’t have any idea who he was because Ed is sort of good at masking things and putting on a smile and all that stuff. If Ed was doing Ed right, he would slip right by,” said Eggold.

Or Max would be his “how can I help?” self and get killed. Eggold agreed. “Just immediately a scalpel would go across his neck.”

New Amsterdam, Complete Series, Streaming, Netflix and Peacock