‘Suits’ Renewed For Season 8; Dulé Hill Promoted To Series Regular

USA Network has picked up “Suits” for Season 8.

According to the network, series creator and executive producer Aaron Korsh is set to return for the new season as well as original cast members Gabriel Macht (Harvey Specter), Rick Hoffman (Louis Litt) and Sarah Rafferty (Donna Paulsen). With Patrick J. Adams (Mike Ross) and Meghan Markle (Rachel Zane) exiting the series after Season 7, Dulé Hill (Alex Williams) is coming back for the new season as a series regular.

“After seven seasons, ‘Suits’ remains one of USA Network’s most beloved and popular series,” Chris McCumber, president of Entertainment Networks at NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment, said in a statement. “While we’re excited for Season 8, everyone at USA will deeply miss Patrick and Meghan, and are grateful for the talent and commitment they brought to ‘Suits’ season after season. We wish each of them nothing but the very best.”

While Korsh wouldn’t share a lot of plot details about Season 8, he did tease to Deadline that the new season “will have everything from shifting alliances and internal power plays, to secrets, betrayals and fiery relationships.” Korsh added that Season 8 will introduce an “adversarial new character that will give Harvey a run for his money.” Korsh noted that this new character will be a series regular.

With the Season 7 finale marking the end of Harvey and Mike’s bromance, Korsh said that they plan to “replace the bromance and mentor-mentee [elements of the show] in a comprehensive approach.” Korsh suggested that Harvey and Alex as well as Harvey and Louis would pick up some of the slack in the bromance department. But he admitted that there’s no obvious character right now to take on a mentee role.

Korsh also revealed that there are currently no plans for Gina Torres’ character, Jessica Pearson, to appear in Season 8, as a decision on her “Suits” spinoff is still pending. “I am eagerly awaiting the news of a pickup, and I’m optimistic it would happen,” Korsh said. “Because of that, we are not focusing on Jessica being a significant part of Season 8, I assume she will be involved in the spinoff.”

When asked for potential crossovers between the two series in the future, Korsh said that “it would be ‘Suits’ characters visiting the spinoff.”

“Suits” Season 7B premieres on Wednesday, March 28 at 9 p.m. EST on USA Network.