One of the most dynamic duos in Grey’s Anatomy history is Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) and Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh). But sadly, their iconic reign ended when Oh left the series in 2013. The actress has been quite busy since then, most recently starring in the critically-acclaimed BBC America series Killing Eve. (She picked up a Golden Globe Award for her performance in the show earlier this year.)
Even still, people are stuck on the idea of Oh making a return to Grey’s Anatomy some time in the future. After all, she was a pivotal part of the long-running series, which may end with season 16, so fans are hoping for some on-screen magic before time runs out.
Unfortunately, this isn’t something in Oh’s per view at the moment. “I get [the Grey’s] question regularly, and I answer it really based on what I’m feeling that day — and today [my answer] is no,” she told TV Line last June.
And this is something Pompeo is cool with—even though she “selfishly” wants Oh to resurrect Cristina Yang. Her reasoning? She’s happy Oh is finding success and fulfillment in her current work.
“Selfishly I would love to see Sandra Oh come back to Grey’s,” Pompeo told TV Line this week. “But I also love Killing Eve so much, and I love seeing her have so many of these incredible moments. So, as much as I love Sandra, I’d rather see her shine out on her own. I enjoy that more. That‘s more gratifying to me.” Spoken like a true friend!
PHOTO: Collection Christophel / Alamy Stock Photo
According to TV Line, Oh’s affection for Killing Eve is a major reason why a return to Grey’s isn’t on her radar. “I love Eve. I really love her,” Oh told the outlet. “I also love Cristina Yang. I’m constantly stunned at the response I still get from [Grey’s fans], you know? It’s so fantastic, and it pleases me. It gives me a tremendous amount of satisfaction that, you know, you did work that actually continues going on past the time that you’ve left it… It’s really phenomenal. And the only way that I think I can continue doing good work is just staying true to my own compass. And that compass is pointing north.”
No matter where her compass points, though, we’ll always have the 200+ episodes of Grey’s featuring Cristina to keep us warm. And good news: they’re all streaming on Netflix.
Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) and Derek’s (Patrick Dempsey) relationship is one of the most iconic in the Grey’s Anatomy universe. Their romance was as embedded into mid-2000s culture as Paris Hilton, Juicy Couture tracksuits, and chunky highlights. However, if Grey’s Anatomy were to premiere in 2018—in light of #MeToo and Time’s Up—their relationship would look completely different. In fact, it might not even exist.
That’s what GA showrunner Krista Vernoff told the Los Angeles Times in a new interview from this week.
“If you look at, for example, Meredith Grey [Ellen Pompeo] and Derek Shepherd [Patrick Dempsey] through the lens of Time’s Up and #MeToo, he was her boss, she was an intern, and she kept saying, ‘No, walk away from me,’ and he kept pursuing her, and that is probably not a story we would tell on the show today, and it’s a beautiful reflection of the changing times,” she said.
Vernoff says the show is taking active measures to ensure the on-screen romances mirror the changes in our culture. Look no further than Meredith’s relationship with resident Andrew DeLuca [Giacomo Gianniotti] for proof of that.
“This season, we’re doing a little bit of a reversal as we begin to build this love triangle that’s emerging with DeLuca as one the people in that triangle, and he is a resident and Meredith is an attending, and we’re having to address it differently than we ever would have before,” she said.
Vernoff continued, “We’re having to talk about and look at power dynamics. It is an ongoing conversation in the writer’s room. How do we tell that story in a way that feels honest and romantic and sexy and yet proactive and progressive?”
Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursday nights at 8 P.M. ET on ABC.
McDreamy is officially so 2015. As first reported by People, Josh Radnor—perhaps best known for playing Ted Mosby How I Met Your Mother—has joined Grey’s Anatomy as a new love interest for Ellen Pompeo’s character, Meredith Grey.
Details of his role are being kept under wraps, but ABC was nice enough to give us a few clues about his arrival: He and Meredith get set up on a “hot” blind date by friends in an episode that will air October 11. The network hasn’t specified whether or not Radnor will be sticking around for more than one episode, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
Radnor, as you probably know, spent nine seasons as the beleaguered architect and college professor Ted Mosby on HIMYM, in which his quest to find his children’s “mother” was recounted years later to his children. He has since headlined the period drama Mercy Street and the musical drama Rise, but both were met with quick cancellations.
As for Pompeo, she’s hinted in a recent interview that when her current Grey’s contract expires—at the conclusion of season 16—she might leave the show to explore other career opportunities. “I’m clearly not prepared right now to make any kind of formal announcement about what my future is on the show, but I am really feeling like we have told the majority of the stories we can tell. It’s about time that I mix it up. I’m definitely looking for a change,” she explained. “I think I’ve had an amazing training. I’ve had a master class in producing these last 14 years. I know every aspect of making a television show. Producing and directing is where I’m challenged and where I’m learning. It’s more interesting to me because it’s a skill I haven’t mastered yet.”
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While sad, we can’t wait to see what she does next, should she indeed choose to leave. And in the meantime, we’re looking forward to her latest coupling.
“15 seasons of feels.” That’s the new Grey’s Anatomy tagline, which you can see in the trailer below, and it’s hella appropriate. Honestly, it’s hard to believe 12 years ago a plucky group of surgical residents landed at Seattle Grace hospital and asked us, “Would you lie with me and just forget the world?”
My answer has always been a resounding YES. Since then it’s been appointment television, even through the rough patches and those characters we’d rather forget. (Here’s looking at you, Sloan’s daughter Sloan, Penelope Blake, Eliza Minnick, and Dr. Stark…)
We’ve loved and lost and loved and lost and loved and lost with these doctors, and we’ve shared so many tequila shots at Joe’s and won Harper Averys (before we found out he was a lecherous abuser of Weinstein-like proportions).
And while I have no right to ask anything of this show that’s already given me so much, here are 15 things I want to see happen in season 15.
1. The Meredith/DeLuca tease in the season promo must be a dream
It has to be. I won’t stand for it otherwise. Mer simply cannot sleep with DeLuca, who in my opinion is low-key personality-free. Plus, he used have a thing with her sister, Maggie, and we already did a version of that song and dance with Riggs. My guess is that she has a sex dream about him, and this makes her act weird when she’s sees him in person. End of story.
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2. Multiple Cristina Yang references
In a dream world, Yang would drop by Grey Sloan Memorial to see her “person” while attending some conference at which she was the brilliant keynote speaker. But Sandra Oh is pretty busy being incredible on Killing Eve, so I won’t get my hopes up. Let’s just pray there are more mentions in conversations between Meredith and Karev and FaceTime calls we don’t get to see. Grey and Yang will forever be the show’s greatest pairing, after all.
3. Sell me on Jackson and Maggie
April’s gone and these two got their very own Entertainment Weekly cover, so it’s safe to assume they’re going to be a major couple this season.“Maggie and Jackson are exploring love they have finally claimed,” executive producer Krista Vernoff told EW. But I’ve just never bought into anything more than friendship between them—and I really love both of their characters separately. Here’s hoping they’ll prove me wrong.
4. More stress-inducing, dramatic, case-of-the week moments
I’ll always be here for the dramatic personal lives of my favorite docs, but I also like being reminded of how awesome they are at solving medical mysteries and saving the seemingly unsaveable. The lady who couldn’t stop having orgasms! When Demi Lovato could hear every sound inside her own body! Bonnie and Tom stuck together by that pole after a train accident! The concrete kid! I would be very happy to have my heart ripped out by characters I’ll only know for a single episode.
5. An iconic music moment—or two
No, I don’t mean another musical episode. I’d love to see Grey’s get back to its (yes, somewhat sappy) musical roots of old. The memories I have linked to the aforementioned”Chasing Cars” or “Breathe” are so vivid. I want that overpowering emotion again.
6. The return of Addison Forbes Montgomery (formerly Montgomery-Shepherd)
In rewatching early Grey’s on Lifetime, as I like to do while working from home, I’ve realized how desperately I miss Addie. Kate Walsh had such incredible chemistry with everybody she interacted with. Even when I hated her, I loved her. Now that Arizona’s gone to New York to be with Callie and Sophia, the hospital could use a highly-skilled neonatal surgeon and OB/GYN to pair with Karev. Just saying.
PHOTO: Scott Garfield
7. A relationship worthy of the great Dr. Meredith Grey
Ellen Pompeo deserves every dollar of the $20 million a year she’s now receiving to play our titular character. Mer has had time to mourn McDreamy, win a Harper Avery, raise her kids, and even grow tiny livers. Now she needs a complicated, amazing, grown-up relationship all her own. “Patrick Dempsey is a very tough act to follow and it’s challenging to get someone to come on a season 15 show,” Pompeo recently said in EW. “We’re gonna find someone who makes an impact. That’s our biggest challenge this year.” I. Can’t. Wait.
8. An ortho god amazing enough to follow in Calliope Torres’ footsteps
Welcome to the Grey-Sloan, bitch! Chris Carmack, of The O.C. and Nashville fame, is joining the show, and I have high hopes for his character—and his hair. But Callie was the last ortho god we knew; I just hope he likes breaking bones as much as she did, but with his own special touch, of course.
PHOTO: John Fleenor
9. Don’t make Owen too domestic
I’ve never been the biggest Owen stan, but he’s grown on me over the years. And if he was good enough for Cristina’s affections, he should be good enough for mine. But with Teddy showing up pregnant—I’m assuming with his baby—and the foster kiddo already at home, I hope he still has time to use those surgical and leadership skills. Grey Sloan needs the militaristic structure he brings sometimes.
10. Let Bailey Be Bailey
Miranda Bailey is one of the most badass fictional surgeons to ever grace a television screen. She’s been in administrative limbo lately as the Chief of Surgery, and then she had to deal with her husband joining a spin-off, er, the fire department. I want surgical Bailey back. If she yells at some young interns along the way, that’d be fantastic too.
11. Some true happiness for Jo and Alex
At least for a little while. These kids have been through it, guys. They both survived tough childhoods only to face seriously dramatic adult lives with abusive ex-husbands and so many dead doctor friends. They deserve some time in the sun (to quote another Shonda show) after ending last season with a perfect ferry boat wedding.
12. More Debbie Allen, please!
She is a gift to this IRL world and Catherine Avery is one to Dr. Richard Webber, who will always be the Chief to me. I love Catherine’s complicated, yet loving relationship with her son, Jackson. I admire that she never backs down, even when she’s wrong—which is, frankly, so relatable. Allen also directs a lot of Grey’s which is another reason to adore her.
Oh, and there’s this:
13. Solve the problem that is Amelia Shepherd
I’ll be honest here: I do not like Derek’s little sister and never have. (I didn’t watch Private Practice—where her character was first introduced—after the first season, so maybe my view of the character is skewed.) To me, she’s always been a side character trying to become a main character who whines more than any of Mer’s three kids. But I have hope that this season she’ll be amazing!
14. A storyline fully focused on the four OGs
Weber, Bailey, Grey, and Karev. Everyone else from that first magical season has either left Seattle or the earthly plane completely. Please Grey’s writers: Bring on a multi-episode plot that gives each of our original faves space to shine and bicker and be the doctors we’ve watched them grow into over 15 seasons. Only good things can happen if you do.
15. Teddy stays in Seattle for good
I’m hoping Dr. Teddy Altman’s return will not be limited to a mini-arc. She’s the kind of tough, fun friend Meredith could use more of, especially now that she’s (hopefully) getting back into the dating scene. Teddy’s got a soft side, too. Remember how heartbroken she was when Scott Foley died? Plus, she’s a brilliant surgeon who’s also going to have some uterine drama given that she announced in the season finale that she’s pregnant, presumably with Owen’s baby. The possibilities for her character are endless.
Grey’s Anatomy returns tonight on ABC at 8 p.m. ET.
Grey’s Anatomy has been around for a whopping 14 seasons, and honestly, there have been so many ups and downs and rollercoasters and heart-wrenching moments and steamy sexing sessions and just…emotions that it would take far too much time to recount the best of them here. Who even has the stamina for that kind of writing? Besides, it’s better look to the future than to the past—and as it turns out, the future means we can look forward to season 15 of Grey’s Anatomy Hallelujah, everyone.
ABC, the show’s home—and where it ranks No. 1 for primetime dramas among adults 18-49—announced on Friday that it would be renewing Shonda Rhimes’ famous hospital show for yet another season. That means, says ABC, that Grey’s is going to be ABC’s longest-running primetime drama series, and (here’s a watercooler fact) only seven TV dramas have ever run for longer. The current season, its 14th, is currently the most-watched in four years, so fans, the execs at ABC heard you. And they delivered.
The news isn’t exactly what you’d call a surprise: Grey’s is the series that keeps on giving to the audience and accountants alike, so whether it was going to be up for cancellation or not wasn’t up for debate. But any good news is good news in 2018—or whatever year it is on Grey’s—so we’re especially stoked about this.
We don’t yet know when it will begin filming, but you can bet we’ll keep you posted as we know more. In the meantime, at least Grey’s spin-off Station 19 is here to keep us company.
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