Paging Dr. Meredith Gray to ABC’s fall primetime lineup! After season 17 was reduce brief because of the coronavirus pandemic, the community formally renewed the long-running medical drama for a brand new season in Could 2021. A month later, ABC confirmed that its season finale was the week’s “No.1 leisure sequence” amongst adults.
“Station 19 and Gray’s Anatomy have finished an unimaginable job of honoring real-life heroes by giving audiences an unflinching have a look at one of many largest medical tales of our time,” Hulu Originals & ABC Leisure president Craig Erwich stated by way of a press release on the time. “Krista [Vernoff] and her crew of writers have continued to ship the compelling and compassionate storytelling that may be a hallmark of those exhibits, and created a number of the yr’s most-talked-about moments in tv. We’re so grateful to our proficient casts and crews for his or her extraordinary work that connects with viewers in all places, and we stay up for sharing much more defining moments with our followers subsequent season.”
The present’s renewal was confirmed after fan-favorite stars Ellen Pompeo, Chandra Wilson, Camilla Luddington and extra inked contemporary contracts to return to the hallowed halls of Gray Sloan Memorial after season 17 noticed the departure of two sequence regulars. Within the midst of the COVID-focused season, each Jesse Williams (Jackson Avery) and Giacomo Gianniotti (Andrew DeLuca) had been written out.
“Giacomo has introduced a lot expertise and a lot coronary heart to the function of Andrew DeLuca,” Vernoff wrote in a press release by way of her Instagram in March 2021. “We at Gray’s Anatomy are grieving the demise of this character with all of you. Giacomo performed him so fantastically and took him on such a strong journey — from intern, to romantic, to a psychological well being disaster and again once more. … Thanks Giacomo to your efficiency, your expertise, your grace.”
All through season 17, many acquainted faces additionally returned to the present to reunite with Pompeo’s Meredith Gray throughout a seaside dream sequence whereas she suffered from COVID-19. Followers had been delighted to see Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), Lexie Gray (Chyler Leigh), Mark Sloan (Eric Dane) and George O’Malley (T.R. Knight) come again for a short scene or two.
“I believed it was a good looking strategy to shut it,” Dempsey recalled to Selection in April 2021 about his beloved character’s return to the present. “The intention was to essentially give folks some hope as a result of they’re such an iconic couple. We’ve misplaced so many individuals this yr, the thought that we’d have angels hovering round us caring for us is an effective message to ship out in such a bleak world that we’re residing in. So for all of us, it was a good looking ending to this story. I’m so grateful that I did it and blissful that the followers actually cherished it.”
Preserve scrolling to seek out out every little thing we all know to this point concerning the upcoming season of Gray’s and who will return to the favored medical drama subsequent:
