Grey’s Anatomy is making sure that everyone’s wait will be worth their while.
Due to the recent writers and actors’ strikes, the premiere of this beloved ABC drama has been pushed back until March 14.
That’s the bad news.
But here’s the good news…
… the opener will feature the return of Ellen Pompeo as Meredith Grey!
In a preview of upcoming installment, published online by People Magazine, the veteran actress will reprise this role as soon as the program returns — despite NOT being listed as a series regular for the first time in history.
“How long do I have to wait?” Meredith asks in the trailer before the scene shifts to a shot of the surgical interns getting ready for a new day.
“What are you waiting for? Let’s go,” Miranda Bailey then calls.
While walking the halls of the famous hospital, Miranda also tells Meredith: “The interns are in trouble.”
That’s pretty much all we get as far as Meredith is concerned; viewers will need to tune in to find out exactly what she’ll be up to on Season 20.
The star already went with a scaled-back role for season 19, although she remains as an executive producer on the show moving forward, in addition to providing the opening and closing voiceover for each and every episode.
On an edition of Variety’s Actors on Actors series, Pompeo recently opened up to her former Grey’s costar Katherine Heigl about the future of her character.
“I will be making some appearances hopefully next year, if I can find some time,” she said at the time. “It’s not a complete goodbye. And I think we’ve got an interesting story to tell.”
In August 2022, we learned that Pompeo would no longer anchor Grey’s Anatomy.
She had previously hinted that she was ready to move on, admirably admitting that executives convinced her to stay over the years by throwing lots of money at her.
“I’ve been trying to focus on convincing everybody that it should end,” Pompeo told Insider while promoting her company Betr Remedies in late 2021.
However, ratings scarcely dipped and ABC offered Pompeo $20 million per year for Seasons 17 and 18 and, well…
“I feel like I’m the super naive one who keeps saying, ‘But what’s the story going to be, what story are we going to tell?’” Pompeo added in this new interview.
“And everyone’s like, ‘Who cares, Ellen? It makes a gazillion dollars.’”
About a year ago, Pompeo explained her decision as follows:
“I gotta mix it up a little bit.
“I’m 53, my brain is like scrambled eggs. I gotta do something new. You can’t do The New York Times crossword puzzle every single day.”
Added Pompeo back then to Drew Barrymore:
“I mean, 19 years, that’s more than people keep their kids in their house, like people keep their kids in their house until they’re 18 and then they send them off to college.
“So this is like me like going away to college.”
Season 20 of Grey’s Anatomy premieres March 14 at 9/8c.