‘Royal Pains’ Is Coming Back: 5 Burning Questions We Have for the Revival

It’s been close to a decade since the Royal Pains series finale marked the end of a very sunny (the “blue sky era”) time in television, but now HankMed is coming back to heal us all again. The USA Network medical dramedy is returning for another round of concierge medicine fun in a new series for NBC, with Mark Feuerstein returning to his role as Dr. Hank Lawson.

According to Deadline, Feuerstein is the only member of the original cast who is currently attached to return for the series, but co-creator Andrew Lenchewski is returning as an executive producer, along with Michael Rauch.

The new series is said to be set several years after the events of the then-series finale, which aired in 2016, and will find Hank looking for a new purpose in life (again) and about to embark on a massive new venture.

The original series followed Hank as he moved to the Hamptons to co-launch a house call treatment service for the residents of the ritzy town after being fired from his New York City ER job for choosing to treat a city kid in dire need before a hospital benefactor. Over time, the seaside getaway became a true home for him, and his medical group became a tight-knit family and a vital part of the community.

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We’ll have to wait and see whether some of the other cast and characters will return to their roles, too, but some of them seem far too important to leave out. After all, Paulo Costanzo starred as Evan Lawson, Hank’s brother and HankMed co-founder who was the most central figure in his life throughout Royal Pains. Also, the finale saw Hank engaged to Jill Flint‘s character Jill Casey. Evan, meanwhile, was busy raising children with Brooke D’Orsay‘s Paige Collins, so she’s part of the fam, too. Reshma Shetty‘s Divya Katdare was still a part of the HankMed crew during Hank’s summer visits and her off-time from medical school at Johns Hopkins, and Ben Shenkman‘s Dr. Jeremiah Sacani was still around working for the crew, too.

Since we don’t know much else about the series yet, we put together our burning questions and a few wishlist items for the Royal Pains revival.

How long did Hank and Jill stay in Sierra Leone?

At the end of Royal Pains, Hank decided to take leave of the Hamptons and join his ex’s clinic servicing a village in Africa. We know they were there for at least the three years between the moment of his arrival and the series epilogue back in the Hamptons — and that they got engaged somewhere during that time — but how long did their philanthropic endeavor continue? And did they ever get married?

David Giesbrecht / © USA Network / Courtesy: Everett Collection

Has Evan and Paige’s family continued to thrive?

It was definitely an instant family situation for Evan and Paige once they decided to foster Lena (Sarah Mezzanotte) and her brothers while Paige was pregnant — with twins, it turned out! So when we last saw them, the two had their hands full with a family of seven. Luckily for them, Boris had gifted them use of his megamansion Shadow Pond, so they had plenty of room for their sprawling brood. But was that an open-ended thing? And did they really choose to name the boys Bill and Ted?

Did Boris ever claim his birthright?

Last we saw of him, Boris was recovering from a nasty case of dengue fever and on the run from those Russians who wanted him to step up as a biological royal and help fix things in his home country. He told Hank that he wasn’t necessarily opposed to it, but he wanted to do so in his own time. So is he still out there fleeing those folks, has he returned to reclaim his place at the Hamptons, or has he finally embraced the rights and responsibilities of his lineage?

Did Divya decide to stick with HankMed after medical school?

Divya was still working with the Hamptons group, according to a passing mention in the epilogue, but that was just three years after she got into Johns Hopkins. So did she continue to work for him after finishing up her education, or did she move onto a residency or another practice group?

What will Hank’s next adventure possibly be?

Hank got to do a lot with his oligarch benefactor Boris footing the bill, and before that, he was a successful physician in the emergency department. As the teaser indicates, he’ll be doing something even bigger in this new leg of the character’s story so what could that possibly be? Surely, beachside concierge services don’t measure up to that descriptor, but he’s also already done the globe-trotting doctor thing. What’s next? We have to know.

Barbara Nitke / © USA Network / Courtesy: Everett Collection