Suits has been making big news in the last view months. Major shakeups to the cast are on the way thanks to the upcoming departures of two actors who have been on the show since the very first episode, and it was somewhat difficult to imagine how Suits would carry on with such a reduced cast in Season 8. Now we know of one way the show will fill in the gaps left by the departures: Katherine Heigl of Grey's Anatomy has landed a role as a series regular in Season 8, and the character already sounds intriguing.
In Season 8, Katherine Heigl will play a character by the name of Samantha Wheeler, who is a talented lawyer who joins Pearson Specter Litt as a new partner. She won't simply fit right into the existing dynamic of the characters who won't be leaving. In fact, Samantha will challenge the status quo of the firm that had likely already been shaken up by the events of the end of Season 7. She has the potential to become an instrumental ally or a formidable legal foe for Harvey and Co. All things considered, she should help take the USA drama into a new era.
Katherine Heigl has been a fan of Suits from the very beginning, so she should be able to hit the ground running on the show. Even if her character won't exactly blend into the dynamic of Pearson Specter Litt -- at least at the beginning -- Heigl herself could be the perfect addition. Given that Heigl has had some bad luck when it comes to primetime dramas in recent years, perhaps joining the cast of an existing hit could give her a win.
Interestingly, joining Suits will actually reunite her with Dulé Hill on the small screen. The two worked together on the short-lived legal drama Doubt, which got off to a poorly-rated start and didn't last very long on CBS. I'm guessing Suits will be a more successful venture for the two of them than Doubt. We can't say at this point whether or not their characters will interact much in Season 8, but we can hope. Hill himself is a newly-minted series regular on Suits after his character debuted in the first half of Season 7.
The two Doubt alums are undoubtedly stepping in to help Suits move on after the departures of Patrick J. Adams and Meghan Markle as Mike and Rachel. Markle made the decision to leave a while ago in a pretty unsurprising move. After all, the woman set to marry Prince Harry can't really continue working on a USA legal drama in the U.S. Patrick J. Adams recently revealed his reasoning for leaving the show as well. Fans may well miss these two after their many years on the show, but who knows? Maybe Katherine Heigl and Dulé Hill as regulars will mix things up in a good way.
We'll have to wait and see. Season 8 of Suits is still a while off. Production on the eighth season doesn't start until this April in Toronto. The drama will return for the second half of Season 7 on Wednesday, March 28 at 9 p.m. ET on USA. For more options of what to watch on the small screen, be sure to check out our midseason TV premiere guide.
