‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Star Teases More ‘Crazy Unexpected People’ to Return for Season 17

Grey’s Anatomy fans can expect to see more beloved characters returning for cameos. The already whirlwind of a season, which has been filled with plenty of twists and turns and has treated fans to more than just a few returns of long-gone fan-favorite characters, is set to have even more “surprises” before the Season 17 finale later this year, according to series star Camilla Luddington. Warning: This post contained major spoilers for Grey’s Anatomy Season 17.

Luddington, who portrays Jo Wilson on the long-running medical drama, made the revelation during a recent appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show. As fans know, the season opened with Meredith contracting the coronavirus, and she has since remained in a coma, with many of her scenes taking place in a dreamlike sphere, with past characters visiting her on a beach. Noting that “this season [fans will] know has been wild” because of the numerous cameos, according to Us Weekly, Luddington told Clarkson that she is “telling everyone to watch live because we have so many crazy unexpected people coming back that you wouldn’t imagine.”

So far, Season 17 has featured the returns of a number of beloved characters who ultimately met untimely ends. The season kicked off with the return of Dr. Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), with George O’Malley (T.R. Knight) and the recently deceased Andrew DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti) also returning. During Thursday’s all-new episode, Chyler Leigh’s Lexie Grey is also set to return. While Luddington refrained from divulging which other characters fans can expect to see, she did make reference to the upcoming return of Sarah Drew’s April Kepner, confirming that she is “coming back for an episode too.” She added that “we have a lot of surprises this season.”

Speaking to Deadline following Dempsey’s return in the season premiere, Grey’s showrunner Krista Vernoff opened up about the decision to create Meredith’s “dream life” and bring characters back. Vernoff said she wanted to “bring joy, and escape, and fan candy” to the season, explaining that she was “walking on the beach one day, and I was like, what if there’s a Meredith dream motif?”

“There have been studies about how intense our dream life has been. In the pandemic, people are having really intense dreams because of the lockdown. We’re not getting enough stimulation, and so, it’s happening in our dreams. So, it started as that. It started as, how do we give people some escape,” she explained. “I had this imagining of a beach motif throughout the season, and I called Ellen, and I said, what if we bring back, I don’t know, some dead character that you could dream of on the beach, that would be so fun for the fans.”

Fans will ultimately have to wait to see which other characters returning in Season 17. New episodes of Grey’s Anatomy air Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Stay tuned to PopCulture.com for the latest updates!