‘Grey’s Anatomy’: Is Jesse Williams Leaving in Season 16?

Grey’s Anatomy star Jesse Williams just landed a new big role and with Jackson Avery’s fate left unclear in the Season 15 finale, could we be saying goodbye to another beloved cast member in Season 16?

The Season 15 finale left Jackson’s fate as one of many big cliffhangers for fans to worry about during the summer after the plastic surgeon ventured out of his car, following a fight with his girlfriend Maggie (Kelly McCreary), only for him to disappear into the fog and not be seen again.

Two weeks after the finale episode aired, Second Stage Theater announced Williams will make his Broadway debut in 2020 in the role of Darren Lemming in Richard Greenberg’s Tony Award-winning play, Take Me Out.

Directed by Scott Ellis, the story follows the star center fielder for the Empires who comes out of the closet and must deal with the fan response he receives off the field after it reveals a barrage of long-held unspoken prejudices, Entertainment Tonight writes.

“With Lemming facing some hostile teammates and fraught friendships, he’s confronted with the challenges of being a gay person of color within the confines of a classic American institution. As the Empires struggle to rally toward a championship season, the players and their fans begin to question tradition, their loyalties, and the price of victory,” the synopsis for the Broadway show reads.

Take Me Out is set to begin previews April 2, 2020, and officially open April 23, 2020 at Second Stage Hayes Theater.

With Williams’ exciting new role on the horizon, could Williams be heading to the end of the line on the ABC medical drama?

A rep for Grey’s Anatomy told the outlet in a statement: “Jesse will be back next season, but that is all I have to share at this point.”

Series showrunner Krista Vernoff also opened up to the publication about Jackson’s big cliffhanger.

“Disappearing Jackson into the fog felt really unexpected and it felt like the beginning [of a new journey]. It felt a little bit like in the previous scene, we completed our ‘season of love’ and in the final scene we teased the beginning of next season,” she told ET. “The fact that Jackson disappeared at one point this season and the fact that he fell suddenly at the end of one act in the finale, both of those things helped mislead. You didn’t expect that Jackson was actually going to disappear when he took that walk into the fog. Whereas when characters walk off into the fog on Grey’s Anatomy, traditionally you get really worried. But we didn’t expect Jackson to disappear again because we played that beat.”

We’ll have to wait and see what happened to Jackson in the fog this fall. Grey’s Anatomy will return for Season 16 in fall 2019. The show has already been renewed for Season 17.