Zachary Quinto-Led Medical Drama ‘Dr. Wolf’ Lands Series Order At NBC

A long-gestating medical drama that’s inspired by the late neurologist Oliver Sacks has been handed a series order at NBC.

NBC has given a series order to Dr. Wolf, which follows revolutionary, larger-than-life neurologist Oliver Wolf (Zachary Quinto) and his team of interns as they explore the last great frontier — the human mind — while also grappling with their own relationships and mental health.

The project from writer/EP Michael Grassi and director/EP Lee Toland Krieger was the last 2023 pilot awaiting word of its fate from NBC.

The drama is inspired by the books “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” and “An Anthropologist on Mars,” by Sacks, who died in 2015 at 82. Dubbed by The New York Times a “poet laureate of contemporary medicine,” Sacks dove into dedicated his life to studying the strangest and most mind-boggling brain disorders in the world as a window into human consciousness, and he believed in remaking our approach to the mentally ill and neuro-atypical. His book, Awakenings, also was made into the 1990 film starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams.

There have been multiple attempts to bring Sacks’ story to the small screen. In 2019, Fox ordered a put pilot commitment inspired by Sacks’ work that was from Krieger, Blindspot executive producer Alex Berger and Fabrik Entertainment.

In 2018, Fabrik teamed with The Imaginarium to attempt a Sacks drama. The physician’s life also was the subject of a TV drama project that received a script commitment at NBC in 2013.

Besides Quinto — whose last series regular role on NBC was in Heroes — Dr. Wolf will star Tamberla Perry, Ashleigh LaThrop, Alexander MacNicoll, Aury Krebs, Spence Moore II, and Teddy Sears.

Dr. Wolf will be EPed by Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, Leigh London Redman (Berlanti); Henrik Bastin, Melissa Aouate (Fabel); Andy Serkis, Jonathan Cavendish, Will Tennant (The Imaginarium); and DeMane Davis. It will be produced by Berlanti Productions, Fabel Entertainment and The Imaginarium in association with Warner Bros. Television and Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group.