Will 'Grey's Anatomy' End With Season 19?

Ellen Pompeo will be playing a character other than Meredith Grey for the first time in almost two decades after signing on to star in a ripped-from-the-headlines Hulu limited series. This has instantly sparked questions about the future of Grey's Anatomy, which is almost unthinkable without Pompeo. She is expected to have limited participation in the upcoming Season 19, but there is no decision on if it will be the ABC drama's final year.

Pompeo will only appear in eight Season 19 episodes, sources told Deadline. Her workload was less extreme for the past two seasons, as Meredith spent most of Season 17 in a COVID-related coma and Season 18 in Minnesota. However, Season 18 ended with Meredith deciding to stay in Seattle after all. There has been "chatter" that Season 19 would see Meredith's story come to an end, but ABC hasn't decided if the new season will be Pompeo's last and the last for the series. Pompeo will continue as narrator and executive producer for Season 19.

Although Grey's creator Shonda Rhimes is no longer directly involved in the show's writing, she has said in the past that it should not continue without Meredith. Pompeo has had different feelings though. In recent years, she has given multiple interviews about her desire to move on from Grey's. She told Insider in December 2021 she was "trying to focus on convincing everybody that it should end," but she also understood she was being "super naïve " about it ending since the show is still one of ABC's top-rated dramas.

During a May Entertainment Tonight interview, Pompeo was noncommittal about the show surviving without her. "We'll see, we'll see," she said, noting that "trying to reinvent the show and continually trying to reinvent the show is the challenge at this point, and listen, the show speaks to a lot of people, and the young people love the show." She said the team behind the show is "going to try to keep it going for the young people, not necessarily with me, but keep it going beyond me."

Grey's Anatomy has, like so many shows that last this long, already reinvented itself multiple times. Season 19 will see even more changes, with Harry Shum Jr., Adelaide Kane, Alexis Floyd, Niko Terho, and Midori Francis all joining as new characters. Aside from Pompeo, only Chandra Wilson and James Pickens Jr. have starred in all 18 seasons. The main cast for Season 18 also included Kevin McKidd, Caterina Scorsone, Camilla Luddington, Kelly McCreary, Kim Raver, Jake Borelli, Chris Carmack, Richard Food, Anthony Hill, and Scott Speedman. Season 19 will debut on Oct. 6.

Pompeo's Hulu project is based on the shocking true story of Ukrainian-born Natalia Grace. Her adoptive parents, Kristine Barnett and Michael Barnett, allegedly abandoned Grace, who has a rare form of dwarfism, in 2013 when she was 9. The parents claimed Natalia was a mentally disturbed adult woman who threatened their lives. Many of the charges against the Barnetts were dismissed, but Grace denied allegations she is a con artist. Pompeo will play Kristine Barnett and serve as executive producer.